University of Texas Bulletin 

No. 2209: March 1, 1922 



CONFERENCE UPON 
THE TEACHER-PROBLEM IN TEXAS 

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

Friday and Saturday, 
April 21 and 22, 1922 




5*3 7^5?- 



/ 



"A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preser- 
vation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the 
duty of the legislature of the state to establish and make suitable 
provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system 
of public free schools." 

— Article VII, Section 1, Constitution of the State of Texas 



"If the character of qualifications of teachers be allowed to 
degenerate, the free schools will be pauper schools, the pauper 
schools will produce pauper souls, and the free press will be- 
come a false and licentious press, and ignorant voters will be- 
come venal voters, and an oligarchy of profligate and flagitious 
men will govern the world." 

— Horace Mann 



PUBLISHED BY 
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

AUSTIN 



RlBMgflp 



Publications of the University of Texas 

Publications Committee: 

Frederic Duncalf J. L. Henderson 
G. C. Butte E. J. Mathews 

Killis Campbell H. J. Muller 

F. W. Graff A. E. Trombly 

Hal C. Weaver 



The University publishes bulletins four times a month, 
so numbered that the first two digits of the number show 
the year Of issue, the last two the position in the yearly 
series. (For example, No. 2201 is the first bulletin of the 
year 1922.) These comprise the official publications of the 
University, publications on humanistic and scientific sub- 
jects, bulletins prepared by the Bureau of Extension, by the 
Bureau of Economic Geology and Technology, and other bul- 
letins of general educational interest. With the exception 
of special numbers, any bulletin will be sent to a citizen of 
Texas free on request. All communications about Univer- 
sity publications should be addressed to University Publica- 
tions, University of Texas, Austin. 



449-1194-3-10-22-2500 



University of Texas Bulletin 

No. 2209: March 1, 1922 



CONFERENCE UPON 
THE TEACHER-PROBLEM IN TEXAS 

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

Friday and Saturday, 
April 21 and 22, 1922 




"A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preser- 
vation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the 
duty of the legislature of the state to establish and make suitable 
provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system 
of public free schools." 

— Article VII, Section 1, Constitution of the State of Texas 



"If the character of qualifications of teachers be allowed to 
degenerate, the free schools will be pauper schools, the pauper 
schools will produce pauper souls, and the free press will be- 
come a false and licentious press, and ignorant voters will be- 
come venal voters, and an oligarchy of profligate and flagitious 
men will govern the world." 

— Horace Mann 



PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY FOUR TIMES A MONTH, AND ENTERED AS 

SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POSTOFFICE AT AUSTIN. TEXAS, 

UNDER THE ACT OF AUGUST 24, 1912 



.C(. 



The benefits of education and of 
useful knowledge, generally diffused 
through a community, are essential 
to the preservation of a free govern- 
ment. 

Sam Houston 

Cultivated mind is the guardian 
genius of democracy. ... It is the 
only dictator that freemen acknowl- 
edge and the only security that free- 
men desire. 

Mirabeau B. Lamar 



LI3KARY OF CONGKi-Si 
-ECEIVED 

0CT181922 

DOCUMENTS DtV'O".; 



a 



*> ^.'594:58' \ 



CONTENTS 






PAGE 

Executive Committee 4 

Committee on Program 4 

Program 5 

Studies to Serve as Bases for Discussions: 

The Elementary Teacher in Texas, Principal Leonard Power 10 

The High-School Teacher in Texas, Professor A. C. Nichols.. 13 

The Teacher of Public School Art in Texas, Supervisor Lide 
Hooe 17 

The Teacher of Public School Music in Texas, Instructor 
Elf leda Littlejohn 20 

The Teacher of Commercial Branches in Texas, Supervisor 
W. B. Mikesell 26 

The Teacher of Manual Training in Texas, Director W. S. 
Hunsdon 36 

The Teacher of Home Economics in Texas, Director Jessie 
Harris 43 

The Teacher of Agriculture in Texas, Professor Martin C. 
Hayes . . -. 52 

The Teacher of Physical Training in Texas, Education and 
Physical Education Staffs, Sam Houston Normal College 66 

Functions of the University, the A. and M. College, and the 
College of Industrial Arts as to Teacher-Training, Pro- 
fessor B. F. Pittenger 73 

Functions of the Normal Colleges as to Teacher-Training, 
President R. L. Marquis 79 

Functions of Junior Colleges as to Teacher-Training, Dean 
J. O. Leath 84 



Executive Committee of the Conference 



Harry Yandell Benedict, Dean of the College of Arts. 

Bess Heflin, Adjunct Professor of Home Economics. 

Robert Adger Law, Professor of English. 

Clara May Parker, Adjunct Professor of the Art of 
Teaching. 

Edward Jackson Mathews, Registrar, and Assistant Dean 
of the College of Arts. 

Thomas Hall Shelby, Director of the Bureau of Extension. 

William Seneca Sutton, Dean of the School of Education, 
Chairman. 



Committee on Program 



Annie Webb Blanton, State Superintendent of Public In- 
struction. 

Emmett Brown, Superintendent of City Schools, Cleburne. 

Harry F. Estill, President of the Sam Houston Normal 
College. 

Martin L. Hayes, Professor of Agricultural Education, 
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. 

Claude Andrew Nichols, Professor of Education, Southern 
Methodist University. 

Mary Shipp Sanders, County Superintendent of Schools, 
Williamson County. 

William Seneca Sutton, Dean of School of Education, 
The University of Texas, Chairman. 

Richard J. Turrentine, Professor of Education, College of 
Industrial Arts. 

George Freeman Winfield, President of Wesley College. 



PROGRAM 



Each topic found in the following- program will be dis- 
cussed by any members of the Conference that may desire 
to be heard. 



Friday, April 21, I 922 
UNIVERSITY BAPTIST CHURCH 

MORNING SESSION 
9:30 A. M. to 12 m. 

Dean A. W. Birdwell, 
Southwest Texas State Normal College, presiding. 

What is the status of teachers employed in the rural schools 
of Texas? 

AFTERNOON SESSION 
2:00 to 4:30 P. M. 

Superintendent M. H. Moore, 

President of the Texas State Teachers' Association, 

presiding. 

In the towns and cities of Texas, what is the status of : 

1. Teachers employed in elementary schools? 

2. Teachers employed in high schools? 

3. Teachers of home economics, manual training, agri- 

culture; and commercial subjects? 

4. Teachers of newer subjects other than vocational? 

EVENING SESSION 
8:00 P. M. 

Address: "What shall we do now?" — Livingston C. Lord, 
LL.D., President of the East Illinois State Teachers 
College. 



University of Texas Bulletin 



Saturday, April 22, 1 922 



UNIVERSITY BAPTIST CHURCH 

MORNING SESSION 
10:00 a. m. to 12:15 P. M. 

Superintendent Emmett Brown, 
Cleburne Public Schools, presiding. 

In order that there be efficient teachers in the public schools 
of Texas, what should be done by: 

1. The Legislature ? 

2. Local, county, and state superintendents? 

3. Boards of education? 



AFTERNOON SESSION 
2:30 to 4:30 P. m. 

Superintendent R. B. Cousins, 
Houston Public Schools, presiding. 

In order that there be efficient teachers in the public school? 
of Texas, what should be done by: 

1. Colleges and universities? 

2. Normal colleges? 

3. Civic and other organizations interested in educa- 
tional progress? 



Studies to Serve as Bases for Discussion at 
the Conference Upon the Teacher- 
Problem in Texas 



The Rural School Teacher in Texas — Dean J. Thomas 
Davis, John Tarleton Agricultural College, and Edward 
Everett Davis, Specialist in Rural Education, Bureau of Ex- 
tension, The University of Texas. 

The Elementary Teacher in the Public Schools in Texas — 
Leonard Power, Principal Franklin School, Port Arthur. 

The High-School Teacher in Texas — Claude Andrew 
Nichols, Professor of Education, Southern Methodist Uni- 
versity. 

The Teacher of Art in the Public Schools in Texas — Miss 
Lida Hooe, Supervisor of Art, Dallas Public Schools. 

The Teacher of Music in the Public Schools of Texas — 
Miss Elfleda Littlejohn, Instructor in Music, University of 
Texas. 

The Teacher of Commercial Branches in the Public Schools 
of Texas — W. B. Mikesell, Supervisor of Public High 
Schools, State Department of Education. 

The Teacher of Manual Training in the Public Schools of 
Texas — N. S. Hunsdon, Director of Industrial Education, 
State Department of Education. 

The Teacher of Home Economics in the Public Schools of 

Texas — Miss Jessie Harris, Director of Home Economics, 
State Department of Education. 

The Teacher of Agriculture in the Public Schools of 

Texas — Martin L. Hayes, Professor of Vocational Teach- 
ing, Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. 

The Teacher of Physical Education in the Public Schools 
of Texas — Staffs of the Education and Physical Education 
Departments, Sam Houston Normal College. 



8 University of Texas Bulletin 

The Function of the University, The Agricultural and 
Mechanical College, and The College of Industrial Arts in 
the Solution of the Teacher-Problem — Benjamin Floyd Pit- 
tenger, Associate Professor of Educational Administration, 
The University of Texas. 

The Functions of the Normal Colleges in the Solution of 
the Teacher-Problem — Robert L. Marquis, President of Sul 
Ross Normal College. 

The Functions of the Denominational Colleges in Solving 
the Problem — T. D. Brooks, Professor of Education, Baylor 
University. 

The Functions of the Junior Colleges in Solving the 
Problem — J. 0. Leath, Dean of Kidd-Key College. 



On Saturday morning, April 22, from 8 :30 to 9 :45 a. m., 
the Superintendents' and Principals' Section of the Texas 
State Teachers' Association will hold a meeting in the audi- 
torium of the University Baptist Church. The program, as 
announced by the chairman of the section, Superintendent 
A. L. Day, of Commerce, is as follows: 

1. Does the Constitution of Texas Need Revision so far 

as the Section on Education is Concerned? — M. H. 
Moore, President Texas State Teachers' Association. 

2. The Teacher-Training Agencies of Our State — 

R. B. Binnion, President East Texas State Normal 
College. 

3. Important Phases of the High-School Teacher-Prob- 

lem in Texas — F. M. Bralley, President College 
of Industrial Arts. 

4. Business Meeting. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 9 

On the same day, at the same hour, the section of the 
Texas State Teachers' Association known as College Teachers 
of Education will hold a meeting in the auditorium of the 
University Y. M. C. A.. The chairman of that section, 
Professor J. F. Cox of Abilene Christian College, announces 
this program: 

1. Duties and Responsibilities of Teachers of Education 

in Colleges and Universities in Texas Toward Edu- 
cation in General in this State — 0. H. Cooper, Pro- 
fessor of Education, Simmons College. 

2. How the Professional Teachers of Education may 

Function Through a Section of the Texas State 
Teachers' Association — E. D. Jennings, Dean of the 
College of Arts, Southern Methodist University. 

3. Business Meeting. 

Question : To be or not to be a regular, recognized 
section of the Texas State Teachers' Association ? 



During the same period the Association of Texas Colleges 
will meet in the Sunday School auditorium of the University 
Baptist Church. Registrar E. J. Mathews, president of the 
Association, announces this program : 

1. Comprehensive Examinations — J. P. Comer, Southern 

Methodist University. 

2. Advantages of the Two-Semester Session — Charles 

Puryear, Agricultural and Mechanical College of 
Texas. 

3. College Athletics in Texas— R. W. Tinsley, South- 

western University. 



The members of the three groups named above, will 
actively participate in all the sessions of the Conference. 



Railroad Rates. — The railroads have granted a one and 
one-half fare rate on the certificate plan. The purchaser 
of the ticket will obtain a "certificate" receipt from his local 
railway agent when he buys his ticket to Austin, paying 
full fare. If as many as 250 such certificates are pre- 
sented in Austin, the return railway fare will be one-half 
the regular one-way rate. 



THE STATUS OF THE TEACHER IN THE ELEMEN- 
TARY SCHOOL IN TEXAS 

Leonard Power 
Principal of Franklin School, Port Arthur 

A special questionnaire was sent to 1000 teachers. Most 
of them were too busy to reply in time for the author to get 
the results ready for printing. To date only a few more 
than 100 have reported but their replies have been reduced 
to the following: 

Ninety-eight per cent, have had some high-school train- 
ing. Eighty per cent are high-school graduates. Twenty 
per cent, are normal school graduates while only 8 per cent, 
are university graduates. 

CERTIFICATES 

Permanent 35% 

Permanent Primary 10% 

First Grade 50% 

Second Grade 5% 

The average salary is $960.00. 

DO THEY MOVE ABOUT? 

Fifty per cent, are new in their positions this year. Only 
two out of ten have been in their present positions as long 
as three years. 

WHAT DO THEY SAY ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THEIR WORK? 

All who have replied to date say that they are worth as 
much to the school system as the high-school teachers — 
when all qualifications are the same. Many report that 
they are now paid upon that basis and are encourged to get 
degrees and remain in the elementary school. 

I give below also the results of a study of 603 teachers 
in five counties. These teachers are engaged in schools for 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 11 

white children. I have not separated the high-school 
teachers from the elementary school teachers in this study. 
The information was obtained at a joint institute held last 
year in Port Arthur. 

TABLE I. CERTIFICATES AND SALARIES 

Kind of Certificate Average Salary 

Permanent $1,376 

Special $1,280 

Permanent Primary $1,030 

First Grade $1,020 

Second Grade $ 766 

Average salary of all white teachers is $1,013. 

TABLE II. TEACHING EXPERIENCE 



No. of COUNTIES 

Years Hardin Jasper Jefferson Newton Orange 

6 21 35 4 7 

1- 5 37 46 142 37 21 

6-10 _■ 22 14 109 11 3 

11-15 2 8 35 3 4 

16-20 and over 8 6 16 3 3 

Total 75 95 337 58 38 



Total 


Per Cent 


73 


12 


283 


47 


159 


26 


52 


9 


36 


6 



603 



100 



TABLE III. NO. OF YEARS IN PRESENT POSITION 



No. of COUNTIES 

Years Hardin Jasper Jefferson Newton Orange 

43,57% 62, 67% 122,37% 32,55% 60,25*? 

1 18 17 81 16 8 

2 7 8 54 6 1 

3 1 1 28 2 2 

4 2 2 14 2 1 

5 10 6 

6-10 3 4 21 1 

11-15 10 

16-20 1 10 

Total 75 95 337 58 38 



Total 


Per Cent 


- 284 


47 


140 


23 


76 




34 




21 




7 




29 




10 




2 





603 



12 



University' of Texas Bulletin 



TABLE IV. KINDS OF CERTIFICATES 

COUNTIES 

Certificate Hardin Jasper Jefferson Newton Orange Total Per Cent 

Permanent 19 21 174 10 5 229 38 

Special 2 2 27 10 32 5 

Per. Primary 5 2 12 1 2 22 4 

First Grade 34 44 115 32 16 241 40 

Second Grade 15 26 9 14 15 79 13 

Total... 75 95 337 58 38 603 100 

WHAT THE TABLES SIGNIFY 



It pays teachers to get the higher certificates. Out of 
every ten teachers, four have Permanent certificates and 
four more have First Grade certificates while only one is 
teaching on a Second Grade certificate. 

Only four out of every ten teachers who began teaching 
five years ago are now teaching. There is an almost com- 
plete change every ten years. 

While many teachers leave the profession entirely, more 
leave one place for another. Half of all of our teachers are 
new in their respective communities each year. Only three 
out of every ten have been in their present positions longer 
than one year. 

Table II fills us with hope when we look at the per cent, 
of teachers without previous experience. It is only 12% 
this year. It must have been greater for previous years 
because so few have had more than five years of experience. 



THE STATUS OF TEXAS HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS 

Claude Andrew Nichols 

Professor of Education, Southern Methodist University 

The facts contained in this study have been gathered by 
students of advanced and graduate classes in Southern 
Methodist University. The aspects reported have been 
limited to the training, years of experience, tenure of office 
and salaries of high-school teachers in Texas for the session 
of 1921-1922. Teachers in both the public and private 
schools have been included. All the information used has 
been taken from the Directory of Teachers in Texas High 
Schools, published by the State Department of Education. 
Principals and superintendents have been omitted uniformly 
so that the conclusions drawn should apply to teachers only. 

Training 

Of the 2,797 high school teachers counted, 210 reported 
no high-school attendance or less than one year, 18 one 
year of high-school training, 77 two years, 282 three years, 
2,210 four years or more of high-school training. From 
the facts concerning normal school, college or university 
attendance it seems probable that many may have attended 
high school but did not report it. On the other hand, many 
must have entered normal schools or colleges as adult 
specials without any previous high school instruction. 

Of the 2,797 high-school teachers, 877 had attended a 
normal school ; 200 teachers reported one year at a normal 
school, 397 two years, 173 three years, 92 four years, and 
15 more than four years of such training. 

There were 539 teachers that reported less than one year 
or no attendance at a college or university, 189 had one 
year of college or university training, 326 two years, 369 
three years, 1,137 four years, 177 five years, 60 six years 
or more. 



14 University of Texas Bulletin 

In regard to degrees, 1,259 teachers held no degree, 1,458 
held a B.A., a B.S., or a Ph.B., 80 held other degrees, some of 
which are of doubtful significance ; 70 teachers held a 
master's degree and 2 a Ph.D. The record of standard 
bachelor's degrees is not absolutely exact because those re- 
porting higher degrees did not give the lower degrees in 
the directory. The extent of the possible error is, however, 
small. 

Experience 

On the score of experience, 465 teachers reported no 
previous high-school experience or less than one year, 505 
had served one year as high-school teachers, 460 two years, 
311 three years, 275 four years, 166 five years, 155 six years, 
245 from seven to ten years, inclusive, 109 from eleven to 
fourteen years, 77 from fifteen to twenty years, and 29 over 
twenty years. 

Tenure of Office 

The records concerning tenure of office or the number of 
years of service in the schools in which they were employed 
at the time of the report shows that 367 were teaching their 
first year in the present positions; 1,056 had had one year, 
470 two years, 275 three years, 176 four years, 88 five years, 
70 six years, 159 seven to ten years, and only 136 over ten 
years of previous experience in the same places. 

Salaries 

A classification of salaries of Texas high-school teachers 
shows that 38 received less than $800, 318 from $800 to $999, 
555 for $1,000 to $1,196, 592 from $1,200 to $1,395, 318 
from $1,400 to $1,590, 456 from $1,600 to $1,890, 144 from 
$1,900 to $2,075, 57 from $2,100 to $2,295, 47 from $2,300 
to $3,000. Of the teachers included, 272 or 9.72% did not 
state the salaries they received. The average salary based 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 15 

on a more detailed study than that given above will not be 
available in time to be included in this report. The median 
salary is $1,260. 

In connection with salaries it might be well to observe 
that, according to City School Circular No. 7, of the United 
States Bureau of Education, for the year 1921, Texas ranks 
thirty-first among the states on the average salary paid 
high-school teachers in cities from 30,000 to 100,000 in 
population, thirty-sixth in cities from 10,000 to 30,000, and 
thirty-eighth in cities from 2,500 to '10,000. 



These are the plain, unvarnished facts about Texas high- 
school teachers. Observations and conclusions have been 
made sparingly because the bare facts tell the story. It is 
easy to recommend remedies, but it is more difficult to ap- 
ply them and to make them effective. There is no doubt that 
the new certificate law will insure teachers with better train- 
ing. Those schools that provide for gradual increases in 
salaries will retain their teachers for a longer time. Better 
salaries must come but they will not be provided until the 
public is convinced that efficient teachers deserve higher 
pay and must have it. More adequate professional train- 
ing will be one of the most potent factors in leading the 
public to understand the situation. 



TABULATED SUMMARIES 

Tabulated summaries of the facts already stated are given below. The percentages 
represent the part each number or item is of the whole number of teachers. 





HIGH-SCHOOL 


TRAINING 










No 
training 
reported 


One 
year ! 


Two 
years 


Three 
years 


Four or 
more years 


Number 
reporting 
training 


Number of teachers 


210 


18 


77 


282 


2210 


2587 


Percentages 


7.50% 


0.64% 


2.75% 


10.08% 


79.01% 


92.49% 





NORMAL SCHOOL TRAINING 








No 
training 
reported 


One 

year J 


Two 
years 


Three 
years 


Four or 
more years 


Number 
reporting 
training 


Number of teachers _ 


1920 ! 


200 ] 


397 


173 


107 


877 


Percentages . 


68.64% 


• 7.15% 


14.19% 


6.18% 


3.82% 


31.35% 







COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY TRAIN 


|ng 








No 
training 
reported 


One 

year 


Two 
years 


Three 
years 


Four 
years 


Five 

years 


Number 
reporting 
training 


No. of Teachers 


539 


189 


326 


369 


1137 


237 


2258 


Percentages 


19.27% 


6.76% 


11.65% 


13.19% 


40.65% 


8.47% 


80.73% 



EXPERIENCE AS HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS 





No ex- 
perience or 
less than 
one year 
previous 
experience 


One 
year 


Two 

years 


Three 
years 


Four 
years 


Five 
years 


Six 

years 


No. of Teachers 


465 


505 


460 . 


311 


275 


166 


155 


Percentages 


16.63% 


18.06% 


16.44% 


11.12% 


9.83% 


5.93% 


5.54% 



EXPERIENCE AS 


HIGH-SCHOOL 


teachers (Continued) 






Seven to 
Ten 
years 


Eleven to 

Fifteen 

years 


Fifteen to 

Twenty 

years 


Over 

Twenty 

years 




245 


109 


77 


29 






Percentages - . _ ] 


8.76% 


3.89% 


2.76%, 


1.04% 





Years 


TENURE OF OFFICE 

Reported in School of Present 


Employment 








No pre- 
vious ex- 
perience oi 
less than 

one year 


One 

year 


Two 

years 


Three 
years 


Four 
years 


Five 
years 


Six 
years 


No. of Teachers 


367 


1056 


470 


275 


176 


88 


80 


Percentages 


13.12% 


37.79% 


16.8% 


9.47% 


6.29% 


3.14% 


2.86% 



tenue of office (Continued) 
Years Reported in School of Present Employment 





Seven 

to Eight 

years 


Eight 
to Ten 
years 


Eleven 

to Fifteen 

years 


Sixteen 

to Twenty 

years 


Over 

Twenty 
years 


Number of teachers 


111 


48 


70 


30 


26 


Percentages 


3.96% 


1.74% 


2.50% 


1.07% 


.92% 





SALARIES 








1 $880 1 $1000 
Underl to 1 to 
S800 1 $999 ! $1196 


$1200 | $1400 | $1600 

to | to | to 
$1395 | $1590 | $1890 


$1900 | $2100 | $2300 

to | to 1 to 
$2075 | $2295 | $3000 


Number of teachers 


38 | 318 | 555 | 592 | 318 | 456 


144 | 57 | 47 


Percentages 


1.38%|11.36%|19.84%|21.16%|11.36%|16.30 r ; 


5.14'", 2.03%| 1.71% 



STATUS OF THE TEACHERS OF ART IN THE PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS OF TEXAS 

Miss Lida Hooe, Art Supervisor, Dallas City Schools 

1. The present status of the teachers of public school 
art in Texas can be understood by a study of the classes of 
art teachers in our public schools today. The art teachers 
form three groups, each with its distinctive type of work, 
— the art supervisor, the high-school art teacher, and the 
departmental teacher of drawing in the elementary grades. 
The first two are found only in city schools. The depart- 
mental drawing teacher, while a part of the city system, is 
often found in village and small town schools. 

The art supervisors have received their training in the 
art schools and universities in the north and east. The 
position of the art supervisor is administrative. She trains 
teachers through conferences, model lessons, and exhibitions. 
She plans courses of study, establishes standards of good 
work, and should be an active factor in civic planning and 
in moulding the aesthetic taste of the community in which 
she works. Her salary is a little less than that of the ele- 
mentary school principal or equal to it. 

The high school art teacher must hold a degree. She can 
secure her degree, major in art, and receive her art train- 
ing in the required four years in many northern and eastern 
universities ; or she can complete the four years' course in 
our state university and receive her degree, but she must 
then go to an art school or university for one, two or more 
years' art training before she is prepared for art work in 
a high school. But she will receive the same salary even 
with this extra training in art as other high school teachers 
who became English, Latin, or mathematics teachers as soon 
as they received their degrees from the state university. 

The departmental drawing teacher is a regular grade 
teacher whose training, qualifications, certificate, and salary 
are co-equal with the other grade teachers, but who must 



18 University of Texas Bulletin 

possess, in addition, some ability and training in public 
school art. This training can be obtained in our state 
normal schools and is supplemented by training under the 
art supervisor. 

The art work in primary and lower elementary grades is 
done by the regular grade teacher who works independently 
or under the direction of the supervisor. In the rural 
schools, villages, and towns, art instruction is an elective 
subject depending upon the personal qualifications and de- 
sires of the teacher. There is no supervision and no check- 
up on such work. Notwithstanding the absence of en- 
couragement and requirements some very commendable 
work in drawing is to be found in some rural schools and in 
many villages and towns throughout the state. The greatest 
handicap is lack of good standards of work and the failure 
of the next teacher to carry on the work of her predecessor. 

There are no state requirements in drawing either by 
certificate or demands made of normal graduates. All art 
training is entirely elective. The teachers who are candi- 
dates for third grade certificates may elect drawing as one 
of their optional subjects. Such young men and women 
have experience and very limited qualifications ; they teach 
in small rural schools where no drawing is attempted. This 
and the state adopted text-book in drawing form the only 
recognition of this subject. 

In Texas, at present, there are twelve art supervisors and 
eight high-school art teachers, four of whom teach in the 
high schools of the city. 

2. A reasonably ideal status is one in which; (1) every 
primary teacher and enough grammar grade teachers are 
prepared in our own stat^ schools to give to every child an 
elementary education in art and art appreciation; (2) every 
high school is prepared to offer art training to children of 
special ability or those who elect this subject; (3) state 
supervision is furnis.hed in public school art to plan courses 
of study to fit local needs in various communities, standardize 
the work, and to see that every child is given an elementary 
education in art and art appreciation. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 19 

3. What Texas should do next in order to move toward 
that ideal status : — 

1. Require a minimum course in public school art in all 
the elementary schools of our state. 

2. Demand that public school art be placed on the re- 
quired list of subjects for teachers' certificates. It is now 
elective for third grade certificate only. 

3. Establish a State Supervisor of Art who shall work 
directly under the State Department of Education, and whose 
duties shall be to see that courses of study are prepared 
suited to the peculiar needs of communities ; assist in train- 
ing teachers, and standardizing the art work in elementary 
schools, high schools, and normal schools. 

4. Let the normal schools require a minimum course in 
art training for all graduate students who prepare to be- 
primary teachers; and offer a more complete course for 
teachers who wish to specialize in art work and to become 
departmental or special art teachers. 

5. Let the normals, Industrial College, and University 
offer courses in art training by which high-school teachers 
and art supervisors may receive art training, major in art, 
and receive their degrees without having to attend institu- 
tions in other states. The state should be prepared to train 
those who must in turn assist in training the teachers. 



THE PRESENT STATUS OF PUBLIC SCHOOL MUSIC 

IN TEXAS 

Elfleda Littlejohn 
Instructor in Music, The University of Texas 

As a school subject in the state of Texas music is so new 
and undeveloped, comparatively speaking, that no records 
are on file as to the cities which include it in their curricula 
nor as to the teachers who teach it. Therefore, in order 
that fair and reasonably accurate conclusions might be 
reached in this discussion, the superintendents of 200 inde- 
pendent school districts were asked for information as to 
the music situation in their schools. These two hundred 
school districts are representative of the entire State, in- 
cluding all the cities and large towns and a number of the 
smaller towns, together with a few districts of less than 
800 scholastic population. The response to the request for 
data was excellent and, although in some cases the superin- 
tendents were uncertain as to the qualifications of the 
teachers, on the whole, the information sent in was full 
enough to be taken as the basis for the conclusions herein 
set forth. 

For the purpose of arriving at a clearer understanding 
of the subject, it may be well, before going further, to define 
just what is meant by Public School Music. Strictly 
speaking, the term embraces any and all of the musical 
activities of the public schools, but as many of these activ- 
ities are unorganized and of a purely recreational na- 
ture, and others are open to only a limited number of 
the pupils, I shall here limit my definition to include only 
that music instruction which is offered to public school 
pupils on the same basis as the other school subjects. In 
other words, it is music instruction which is a regular part 
of the course of study, available to all pupils without the 
payment of tuition fees, the teachers being regularly em- 
ployed by the board of school trustees and paid out of the 
school funds. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 21 

There are in Texas fifty towns, large and small, which 
include music in their courses of study. These towns range 
in population from 160,000 to 1,500. The small school sys- 
tems employ special teachers who teach the music in all the 
grades, while the larger cities employ supervisors who direct 
the work of the special teachers and grade teachers. There 
is much diversity in the methods of the adimnistration 
of the work. In some of the large cities the work of the 
high schools is entirely separate from that of the grades, 
that is, the supervisor directs the music instruction of the 
elementary schools only, that of the high schools being in 
charge of special teachers. In other cities, the music work 
of the entire school system from the kindergarten through 
the high school is directed by the supervisor. Many towns 
give regular music instruction to elementary grade pupils 
but cease this instruction when the pupils enter high school. 
Still others employ a teacher for the high school only, letting 
the grade teachers do as much or as little music work as they 
choose or are able to do. 

Besides these fifty towns which have their music in- 
struction on a systematic basis, there are many other towns 
in the state which are giving their school children a taste of 
music, although it is only a taste. In this class are the 
schools which include the singing of rote songs in their 
morning exercises. In some of the schools the grade 
teachers are required to teach music as best they can, with 
little training, if any. In others there are school bands, 
orchestras or choruses directed by an interested teacher. 
In still others, the piano teacher, who has the use of a room 
in the school building in which to give private lessons, helps 
the school choruses and bands. In many of the rural 
schools, the teachers allow the children to sing patriotic 
songs on special occasions ; in some others (but these are 
few), the teachers are trying to teach the pupils a little 
music. All of this sort of music is unsystematic, without 
any special aim and only for recreational purposes. 

Returning to the consideration of the fifty school systems 
having regular music instruction, it is interesting to observe 



22 University of Texas Bulletin 

the data relative to the education, professional preparation 
and experience of the supervisors of this instruction. In 
the first place, nearly all are women, the only two men listed 
being special high-school teachers. None are under twenty- 
one years old and few are past middle age. The average 
age is thirty. Most of them are native Texans, the others 
are from the Southern states, a few from the Middle West. 
Thirty are high-school graduates and only three have had 
less than three years in high school. Twenty-nine have had 
four years or more in college or normal school. Sixteen 
have had less than four years in college but more than one. 
In addition to their regular college or normal school work 
forty-two have had special training in public school music. 
This training was taken at such schools as Northwestern 
University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Sophie 
Newcomb College, Baylor University and Baylor College, 
College of Industrial Arts, the Texas State Normal Colleges, 
University of Texas, and such conservatories as the Insti- 
tute of Musical Art, New York, Cincinnati Conservatory 
and other music schools of recognized high standing. Thir- 
ty-six of the fifty supervisors have Texas State Teachers' 
Certificates, seventeen permanent, the remainder first grade. 
Those who have no state certificates usually have certificates 
in music from the schools in which they took their training, 
although a few are teaching without certificate of any kind, 
apparently. Twenty-four have been grade teachers with 
an average of five years' experience. The fifty supervisors 
have had an average of nearly four years' experience in the 
supervision of public school music. They have all held 
their present positions for at least a year, the average 
length of service being three years. The minimum salary 
paid to a music supervisor in Texas is $800, the maximum 
$3,000, the average $1,329 per annum. 

Summarizing our data, it is apparent that public school 
music is at present far from being well established in Texas. 
Comparatively few towns and cities include it as a school 
subject, for fifty towns constitute a small number in a state 
the size of ours. There are no minimum requirements set 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 23 

by the State for supervisors and special teachers of music, 
each local school board setting its own standard with more 
or less successful results. While the majority of super- 
visors have certificates of some kind, there are a few who 
are teaching without certificates of any kind. As a group 
the supervisors in the Texas schools make an excellent show- 
ing in the record of their educational fitness for their posi- 
tions. They are mature women, with high school and col- 
lege education in addition to their special training. They 
are the better fitted for supervision by having had ex- 
perience in the grades. It should be noted also, that each 
new year does not see them in new position; the average 
length of experience in their present places is three years. 

The State of Texas does not yet recognize music as a sub- 
ject suitable to be taught in public schools. Music is not 
one of the subjects prescribed by law to be taught in the 
public schools. As a natural result, applicants for teachers' 
certificates need not study any music at all. A little over 
a year ago, music was included amongst the optional sub- 
jects for a second grade certificate. Although this action 
marks a step forward, it has little real effect on the grade 
teachers' preparation and fitness to teach it. For two 
years, music has been accepted by the State Committee on 
Classified and Accredited High Schools as a subject suitable 
for affiliation and this decision on the part of the State 
Committee has greatly stimulated the interest taken in music 
by school men. So far, only two high schools have met the 
required standard in order to be accredited in music, but 
this is as it should be, for it is hardly to be expected that 
schools which have never before given instruction in music 
and therefore have laid no foundation in the elementary 
grades could meet the requirements in such a short time. 

Ruskin tells us there are three things every man ought to 
know: (1) where he is; (2) where he is going; and (3) 
what he is going to do about it. We have just weighed the 
facts in the school music situation and have found out just 
about where we are. The next thing for us to do is to 
know our objective, the ideal status toward which we 



24 University of Texas Bulletin 

should direct our effort. I believe the best expression of 
an ideal objective was made by the Music Supervisors' Na- 
tional Conference three years ago when its president stated 
the creed of the Conference thus : "Every child should be 
educated in music according to his natural capacities, at 
public expense, and his studies should function in the musical 
life of the community." This statement of Mr. McCon- 
athy places the proposition squarely before us; and, elab- 
orating it, he says, "(1) that the public school shall discover 
the natural musical capacities of each child; (2) that music 
education in the public schools shall be differentiated in ac- 
cordance with the capacities of the different children; (3) 
that all lines of music education involved in meeting the 
needs of the children of all types and capacities shall be 
offered at public expense; and (4), that there shall be a 
close relationship between the music teaching done in the 
public schools and the musical life of the community." 
I know of no better or higher standard than this to set 
for our public schools in Texas. If this aim could be at- 
tained, we should have state laws requiring music to be 
taught in all public schools ; requiring all grade teachers to 
have sufficient preparation to enable them to teach music m 
the elementary grades ; requiring all applicants for elemen- 
tary certificates to pass an examination in music ; requiring 
all supervisors and special teachers to have either a super- 
visor's certificate or a special teacher's certificate.* These 
requirements would be but the beginning, of course. In 
addition, we should have not only vocal music, but instru- 
mental instruction as well. It has already been satisfac- 
torily proved that public school classes in piano and violin 
are entirely feasible. We should have a band and an orches- 
tra, as well as choruses, in every school. In short, every 
child would have the opportunity to develop musically to the 
extent of his desire and natural capacity. It goes without 
saying that, if such an ideal situation could be developed 



*The new certificate law passed by the last Legislature includes 
requirements for supervisors and special teachers of music, but this 
law does not go into final effiect until 1925. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 25 

in the public schools, the community life would feel very 
beneficial effects. 

This ideal status cannot be attained in a few years. Of 
necessity, the evolution of music education, as of any other 
kind of education, is gradual and apparently slow. But 
Texas has already an excellent start toward the goal I have 
outlined, and when one compares the status of music in the 
public schools a few years ago with its present status, steady 
progress can be clearly observed. Public interest is grad- 
ually awakening. The club women in the state are actively 
engaged in aiding the development of school music. School 
superintendents are evincing more interest in the work. 
The colleges and normal schools are offering more oppor- 
tunities to teachers to prepare themselves to teach school- 
music. All of this is significant of the progress that is tak- 
ing place, but something more definite and concrete is 
needed to give real impetus to music education in our schools. 
The first essential is a state law requiring music to be taught 
in all public elementary and high schools. Not until such a 
law is passed will it be possible to set statewide standards 
for teachers of school music, and until such a law becomes 
a fact such progress as may be made will be uneven and con- 
fined mainly to the larger cities and towns. The passage of 
such a law would not, of course, mean that any sudden im- 
provement would take place in the public school music sit- 
uation, but it would mean that the state would acknowledge 
the value of music in education. Such recognition on the 
part of the state would lay a foundation for the rational 
growth of a subject which heretofore has been neglected; 
it would give music an opportunity to take its rightful place 
in that broad education which is necessary for the full and 
well-rounded development of "all the children of all the 
people." 



COMMERCIAL EDUCATION IN TEXAS 

W. B. Mikesell 
High-School Supervisor, State Department of Education 

Of the four branches of vocational training, business edu- 
cation alone has had to proceed without federal aid. Agri- 
culture, home economics, and industrial education, all re- 
ceive special aid from the state and federal governments. 
Business training is therefore interesting as an example of 
the way vocational education fares when dependent wholly 
upon local districts. It is certainly not because of relative 
unimportance that commercial education was left unaided, 
since business has increased tremendously in recent years 
of Texas history. The aim of this article is to indicate the 
present status of commercial education in this state, and 
possible measures for its improvement. 

One measure of the recent growth of commercial educa- 
tion in the public schools of Texas is its progress in classified 
or accredited high schools and academies, for outside of these 
there is little public school commercial education offered. 

Original accrediting in commercial subjects during the 
last four years has been granted as follows : 

In the spring of 1918 to 36 schools. 

In the spring of 1919 to 60 schools, an increase of 66% 
for the year. 

In the spring of 1920 to 85 schools, an increase of 41% 
for the year. 

In the spring of 1921 to 118 schools, an increase of 39% 
for the year. 

The number accredited last year is 328' b greater than 
the number of schools accredited four years ago. This is a 
greater rate of increase than for any other group of sub- 
jects. It reflects the natural local demand for commercial 
education. 

There are 132 schools offering one unit or more of com- 
mercial work, out of a total of 544 classified or accredited 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 27 

schools. There are 79 others of this number that have 150 
or more high-school students which probably should be offer- 
ing business training to satisfy local need or demand. 
Eleven of these high schools have more than 500 students 
each, and are located in cities having well attended private 
business colleges. Thus it is seen that, while the natural 
growth of business training has been rapid, it has not been 
so rapid as is needed. 

THE PROGRAM, AIMS, AND METHODS 

The public schools have in most part copied the program 
and methods of the private commercial schools, but not their 
aims. The subjects most common are bookkeeping, short- 
hand, typewriting and commercial arithmetic. The method 
of teaching the first three of these is the individual instruc- 
tion method developed by the private schools for students 
who enter and withdraw one at a time, at irregular seasons. 
In aims the two types of schools differ. The private school 
wants its students to complete the course and get a job as 
quickly as possible, as the school is usually paid for the 
course rather than by time. The public high school aims 
to hold the students for a full four-year course, of which the 
commercial work makes up a minor part. Evidently the 
public schools should work out subject-matter and methods 
in harmony with their own aims. For instance class study 
of bookkeeping and elementary accounting is found, by trial 
in the Austin High School, to be more effective than the 
individual set work which it replaced. 

Of the 132 schools reporting one unit or more of commer- 
cial work 45 offer bookkeeping alone, 8 offer stenography 
and 33 others offer bookkeeping and stenography with one 
or more other business subjects. Bookkeeping is often 
taught by the superintendent, which accounts for its being 
so frequently the only business subject. He can let his little 
class of juniors or seniors work at their seats while he is 
away at other business, and it is thus a convenient subject 
for the superintendent. 



28 University of Texas Bulletin 

A half year of economics has been generally adopted dur- 
ing the past two years, coincident with dropping English 
history. Except in the large cities, it is taught by the his- 
tory teacher, as a rule, more as a social science than as the 
foundation of business philosophy. 

A study of accrediting of commercial work by subjects 
rather than by schools that have been granted accrediting 
gives these results : 

Li Economics V2 unit credit is held by 58 schools 

In Commercial or Advanced Arithmetic V2 unit by 112 schools 

In Bookkeeping one unit is held by 53 schools 

In Shorthand and Typewriting from one to two units by 54 schools 

In Commercial Geography y 2 unit is held by 10 schools 

In Commercial Law % unit is held by 13 schools 

A total of classes taught with accrediting of 300 schools 

These subjects are also taught in other schools in which 
they have not yet been recognized for credit. These are 
practically the only business subjects that are attempted 
in the public and private secondary schools in Texas. 

None of these subjects is open to students of the first or 
second years of high school, excepting commercial arith- 
metic, commercial geography and typewriting, which are of- 
fered to second-year students in a small minority of cases. 
It is an exceptional case in which any commercial work is 
open to first-year students, or in which bookkeeping or 
shorthand is offered below the third year. 

In the Cleveland survey it was discovered that training in 
stenography or bookkeeping was useful for girls, but that 
such training was not equally valuable for boys. Such work 
was not in line of promotion for boys, and such definite 
training was likely to prove a handicap by causing them to 
seek "blind alley" jobs. Girls continually practice stenog- 
raphy, bookkeeping, or machine operating. They perform 
the same specialized service regardless of the kind of busi- 
ness that buys the service, and their chance of promotion 
depends upon a better performance of their special work. 

Boys are expected to get a part of it. Even when retained 
in the same business they are moved about from one kind of 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 29 

work to another and their chance for promotion depends 
upon adaptability, ingenuity, and general intelligence. Few 
of them can use any shorthand ; some may find use for ele- 
mentary typewriting, elementary bookkeeping, and office 
practice, such as could be acquired in half-year courses. 

It is found to be unusual for any boy or girl to use special 
training in both stenography and bookkeeping. They 
should become adept in only one. Even for one who follows 
bookkeeping, the maximum practical need in previous train- 
ing is as follows, according to consensus opinion of em- 
ployers : 

"Understanding of debit and credit. 

Understanding of posting. 

Ability to take off a trial balance."* 

Accuracy in figuring, neatness, and good penmanship are 
desired characteristics which are not exclusively matters of 
bookkeeping. 

It is suggested that the committee on classification and 
accrediting and the affiliated colleges recognize a one-half 
year course in bookkeeping for accrediting for college en- 
trance, as well as the one-year course now recognized. This 
might require the equivalent of Set I of the Twentieth Cen- 
tury course. It should be only upon careful vocational 
guidance that boys or girls should be encouraged to go be- 
yond this much bookkeeping or a one-half year course in 
typewriting and office practice. Those expecting to special- 
ize could advisedly go further. Others might use the time 
better in other business courses. 

Boys can start in minor business jobs at an earlier age 
than girls, and with less special training. They can get 
more training in the business itself for their usual line of 
promotion. Consequently fewer boys continue through 
high school, by an average ratio of about two boys to three 
girls. The boys that stay should be rewarded by fitness 
(1) to start at a higher point, (2) to gain promotion faster, 



*The Cleveland Foundation Survey: Boys and Girls in Commer- 
cial Works, p. 152. 



30 University of Texas Bulletin 

or (3) to fill ultimately a larger place than if they had 
dropped out for an earlier business start. Otherwise their 
high school years will prove unprofitable. 

It is generally conceded that business success of boys de- 
pends more upon personality and favorable habits and traits 
of character, than upon any knowledge that can be imparted 
through school text books. Fortunately it is also being 
found that personality and favorable habits can be im- 
proved by direction and training. 

To promote the development of the positive qualities that 
make for success, the following suggestions are offered. 
(1) Select teachers with strong, favorable personality, with 
some business experience, and pay them what it takes to 
hold such persons. (2) Make up the high school English 
course of the kind of training that is generally known to be 
essential to business success. For details see outline of 
English for Business in Texas High School Commercial Bul- 
letin, number 116 of the State Department of Education. 
(3) Give the students a sympathetic, intelligent interest in 
the business of the community by actual contact with some 
of its activities. (4) The present practice is generally 
satisfactory for girls if the course includes special training 
in one selected line, with a general course. (5) The follow- 
ing is suggested as a high school course for those who are 
aiming at business service : 

First Year — 

English, including much oral and written composition. 

General or Introductory Science. 

Commercial Geography, including survey of local in- 
dustries, resources, commercial and public institu- 
tions, V2 unit. 

Typewriting with office practice, V2 unit. 

Elementary algebra, with practical applications. 

Second Year — 

English, using a Business English text as supple- 
mentary. 
Commercial Arithmetic, V2 unit, followed by 
Elements of Bookkeeping, 1/9 unit. 
Commercial or industrial history, (Especially of the 

United States). 
Elect a science or language, or both if able. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 31 

Third Year— 

(Shorthand or Advanced Bookkeeping, if intelligently 
elected, especially for girls). 

English. 

Modern history. 

Elect two or three from such studies as science, lan- 
guage, mathematics, commercial law. 
Fourth Year — 

English. 

A year of social science, such as economics, sociology, 
psychology. 

Two or more electives to follow courses formerly chosen. 

TEACHERS — SELECTION AND TRAINING 

Much of the success of training for business depends upon 
the teachers. Controlable factors upon which an adequate 
supply of proficient teachers depends are as follows : 

I. Defining minimum qualifications for good teachers. 
II. Requiring that minimum standards be met by naming 
them as requirements for certification. 

III. Providing facilities for the desired training of com- 

mercial teachers within the state. 

IV. Providing emoluments that will induce a sufficient 

number of young men and women of strong person- 
ality to meet the conditions, including : 

A. Salaries as high as such people can expect 

in actual business. 

B. Gradual increase in pay with increase of ex- 

perience and training, such as is to be ex- 
pected in business careers. 

The following qualifications for teachers of business sub- 
jects in high school are suggested as representing a reason- 
able minimum under present conditions : 

I. Graduation from a standard high school course as a 

starting basis. 
II. Two years of college work beyond satisfaction of col- 
lege entrance requirements. 
III. Inclusion in the college work of one full course in edu- 
cation, one in the special subject, one course in En- 
glish, and one course on special methods of teach- 
ing the subjects that the applicant desires to teach. 



32 University of Texas Bulletin 

IV. Either previous teaching experience of a least one 

year, or three months of practice teaching in high- 
school commercial courses under responsible super- 
vision. 

V. At least one-half year of practical experience in busi- 

ness. 

It may be interesting to note that numbers two and three, 
above are identical with the requirements needed to obtain 
a three-year special certificate under the new certificate law 
passed by the legislature last spring. This law requires 
that "After September 1, 1925, teachers who devote the 
major portion of their time to teaching or supervising 
special subjects shall be required to hold a high-school cer- 
tificate or a special certificate, as provided for in this act, 
on the special subject in which they give instruction or 
supervise work." It is also noteworthy that no certificate 
of any kind is now required by law of a teacher who spends 
all of his time teaching commercial subjects excepting book- 
keeping, arithmetic and economics. Certificates are re- 
quired only for the teaching of the subjects prescribed for a 
state certificate.* 

That it would require no hardship to demand certificates 
of all at the present time, that commercial teachers are not 
taking advantage of the laxity of the law, and that the re- 
quirements for certification named in the law are not too 
high are all attested by the following records as submitted 
by the 156 commercial teachers whose names appear in the 
latest High-School Teachers' Directory issued by the State 
Department of Education. 

They all report certificates of first class or better. 

Their school preparation is as follows : 

Holding degree of B.B.A. from University of Texas 10 

Having other B.A. degree 37 

Having one year or more of college work but no degree 58 

Showing no schooling excepting high school and special commer- 
cial training 47 

Showing no training beyond high school 4 

Thus it is seen that about two thirds of those now teach- 
ing have one or more years of college training, and most of 
the others have had special commercial training beyond high 
school. 

In the new certificate law homage is paid to the high 
standards of the business world in that two years of college 



*School Laws of Texas, sec. 103. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 33 

training are required for the least of special certificates, 
while a general first class high-school certificate good for 
two years may be obtained for one year in college, or a four- 
year certificate for two years in college with less restriction 
than for the three year special certificate. A great incon- 
sistency exists in that a general certificate authorizes the 
holder to teach any special as well as any required subject, 
according to a sentence of law quoted above. Who would 
care to offer more for a part than is needed for the whole? 
The inconsistency lies in granting the general high-school 
certicate for as little as one year of college work. Two years 
beyond high school seems a reasonable limit for the year of 
1925, with as many students as are now in the colleges and 
universities. 

The new law demands one course in the special subject. 
The more common commercial subjects are taught in the 
university, the normals, and most first-class colleges. The 
law also demands a special course in methods of teaching 
the special subject. Examination of the catalogues dis- 
closes that, while there are courses on methods of teaching 
the three lines of vocational work fostered by the Smith- 
Hughes law, there are no adequate courses on teaching any 
of the commercial subjects. 

A one-term course in teaching of commercial subjects is 
offered in the North Texas State Normal, at Denton. A 
six weeks portion of a course on teaching of commercial 
subjects is announced for alternate years in the Southwest 
Texas State Normal at San Marcos. It appears that no 
practice teaching opportunities are offered anywhere in the 
state, nor courses on the teaching of any of the special com- 
mercial subjects. For such courses, teachers appear to be 
going outside of the state, to the Gregg School, in Chicago, 
and to the Business Institute at Bowling Green, Kentucky. 

The 103 teachers who claimed to have studied some com- 
mercial subjects before attempting to teach them named the 
following institutions as responsible for their training: 

Men Women Total 

The University of Texas 11 13 24 

College of Industrial Arts 5 5 

The State Normal Colleges 6 9 15 

Bowling Green or Gregg Schools 8 21 29 

Private Business Schools 12 9 21 

Other Colleges or Universities 5 4 9 

Total 42 61 103 



34 University of Texas Bulletin 

Fifty-three of the teachers of business subjects did not 
claim to have studied the subjects themselves. 

The most logical agency for training commercial teachers 
would be the State University. It has : 

1. The largest number of advanced business students 
and the broadest program of courses in business subjects. 

2. The largest business community for observation work 
of any of the state schools. 

3. Resources for practice teaching in the local high 
school. 

4. The dpeartment of education of the University is the 
logical agency for special training of high school, normal 
school and college commercial teachers. 

Last summer, while there was a general surplus of 
teachers there were not enough trained commercial teachers 
to meet the demand, though the salaries ranked rather above 
the average. Salaries of the 156 teachers may be grouped 
as follows : 

Commercial alone With other duties 

Men Women Men Women Total 

$1800 or more 15 7 25 1 48 

$1350 to $1799 16 26 10 7 59 

$1125 to $1349 4 18 6 8 36 

$1124 or less 2 8 1 2 13 



Total 37 59 42 18 156 

In experience commercial teachers appear to rank rather 
higher than the general average of high-school teachers. 
This is partly due to the fact that many superintendents 
teach one class in bookkeeping or economics along with their 
administrative duties. Figures for 156 commercial teachers 
at the beginning of the year are as follows : 

Men Women Total 

Full time to teaching business subjects 37 59 96 

One or more business subjects with other classes 

or superintending 42 18 60 



Total - - 79 77 156 

The same teachers grouped according to years of exper- 
ience appear as follows: 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 35 

Men Women Total 

Five or more years before this year 45 29 74 

Two to four years before this year 16 27 43 

One year before this year 6 8 14 

No experience 12 13 25 

Total.* c 79 77 156 

The twenty-five teachers who began this year showed 
rather better training than those of more experience as this 
group includes practically all of the ten with University of 
Texas B.B.A. degree. 

Young people contemplating business work are in constant 
need of advice and guidance about business opportunities. 
Only those who have worked in business organizations are 
competent to give such guidance or to determine what train- 
ing is of value. It seems desirable, therefore, that teachers 
have at least one-half year of practical business experience 
before beginning to teach. 

Culture and a well rounded education are needed by busi- 
ness students quite as much as by others. The traditional 
classical studies are not the only studies productive of cul- 
ture. An enlarged vocational and social outlook is cultural 
to a high degree. Vocational study brings understanding 
and sympathy with ever widening groups of workers. The 
traditional studies might be more enlightening if applied 
to existing conditions when possible. 

A distinctive value of commercial education as a branch 
of learning lies in the fact that commerce and industry are 
in operation in the vicinity of nearly every 'school, so that 
they can be studied at first hand. Any school that attempts 
to teach business in general, and neglects to direct observa- 
tion to the business of the community, is missing an oppor- 
tunity for profitable and cultural laboratory education. 

Moreover, standards of accomplishment set by business 
custom can be adopted for the classroom, with advantage, in 
stenography, bookkeeping, arithmetic, and other studies 
that may be directly applied. It is suggested that, while 
business training might be left open to anyone who can 
profit by the work, credit toward graduation should be al- 
lowed only for a high standard of efficiency, such as is re- 
quired in business. 



MANUAL TRAINING IN TEXAS 
N. S. HUNSDON 

Director of Industrial Education, State Department 
of Education 

In 1896 the first manual training department in the state 
was organized and opened in September as a part of the 
Austin High School. This was made possible through the 
gift of John T. Allan, who left his entire estate to the Aus- 
tin Public Schools for this purpose. 

From 1896 to 1903 there was a great deal of agitation 
for the work, which resulted in the legislature's passing an 
act providing an appropriation of $20,000 for the two years 
1903-05, for aiding in the introduction of manual training 
in the high schools of the state. 

The University of Texas offered courses in manual train- 
ing during the summer school in 1904. The equipment of 
the Austin High School was used in teaching these courses. 

An act of the legislature in 1909 appropriated $32,000 per 
year for two years for aiding in the promotion of manual 
training in the high schools. 

From 1911 to 1917 $50,000 per year was appropriated 
for further aiding in the promotion of the work in the high 
schools of the state. 

About 160 schools received state aid for introducing the 
manual training work in their schools. This aid was 
granted for establishing, equipping and maintaining a de- 
partment of manual training. A sum of not less than $500 
nor more than $1,000 was given on condition that the board 
of trustees of the high school apply for state aid and meet 
certain requirements set up in the law. (Acts of 32nd 
Legislature, Chapter 26, Sec. 3.) 

In 1917 when the state accepted the provisions of the 
Smith-Hughes Federal Law, the appropriation for aid to 
manual training was discontinued. According to Bulletin 
142, State Department of Education, there are 85 high 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 37 

schools in Texas which have manual training departments. 
From this we draw the conclusion that a number of schools 
which received state aid for equipping and maintaining 
manual training departments have discontinued the work. 

Very few schools offer more than one kind of shop work, 
which is usually bench wood work, together with some me- 
chanical drawing. In most cases these schools give drawing 
the first term (of the school year) and shop work the second 
term of the school year. Generally in such cases the work is 
extended over a period of two years, thus completing one 
year of shop work and one year of drawing in the two years. 
The time devoted to the work is usually ninety minutes per 
day for five days per week. 

Only in the larger cities like Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, 
El Paso, and Fort Worth has any attempt been made to give 
a greater variety of work, such as bench work, turning, 
cabinet mill work, pattern making, molding and foundry 
practice, forging, machine shop, auto mechanics, cement 
construction, printing, tin smithing, or sheet metal work, 
and a four-year course in drawing. 

Practically no attempt is being made to offer courses in 
vocational guidance in the grades preceding the high school 
or the first years of high school. 

Since the acceptance of the provisions of the Smith- 
Hughes law, nine schools, three of which are negro, are offer- 
ing day courses in trade training for a specific trade, the 
courses covering from one to two years in length. 

Until the certificate law of 1921 passed by the 37th legis- 
lature, the State had never passed any law requiring manual 
training teachers to have definite qualifications before they 
could be employed to teach the work in the public schools. 
This matter had been left entirely with the local school 
board and the superintendent. 

At the present time all of the six state normal schools 
are offering courses which are intended to train teachers for 
manual training positions in the public schools. 

In order to ascertain the qualifications of the teachers 
now engaged in the teaching of manual training in the 



38 



University of Texas Bulletin 



state, on January 26th a questionnaire was sent to one 
hundred eighty teachers in the eighty-five schools having 
manual training departments. The following table will 
show the results obtained and give a fair idea of what kind 
of teachers are conducting the manual training work : 

QUALIFICATIONS OF MANUAL TRAINING TEACHERS IN 
SCHOOLS 1921-22 



No. cities having manual training departments to which questionnaire was 


85 




18u 




99 


1 Min. 1 Av. | Max. 
Minimum, average and maximum age of teachers 1921-22 1 21 1 31 | 64 




yrs. 


I yr 


2 yr. 


3 yr. 


4 yr. 




9 
54 


2 
3 


14 
11 


13 
11 


57 


No. of teachers who had manual training in high sc. 


16 



No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 



of teachers who 

of teachers who 

of teachers who 

of teachers who 

of teachers who 

of teachers who 

of teachers who 

of teachers who 

of teachers who 

of teachers who 

of teachers who 
with no college 



had courses in- 
had courses 



-Bench Work I 92 

-Cabinet Making | 90 



had courses in — Wood Turning 

had courses in — Pattern Making 

had courses in — Foundry Practice 

had courses in — Forging 

had courses in — Sheet Metal Work 

had courses in — Auto Mechanics 

had courses in — Machine Shop Practice 

had courses in — Cement Work 

had courses in — Mechanical Drawing 
or normal school training 



I 1 yr. 
No. of teachers who have attended college or normal school' 4 




No. 


who took special courses to prepare for 


teaching Manual Training. 


| 79 




who have taken courses in education... 


I 


No. Coursel 1 to 3 | 4 to 7 1 8 to 12 


No. 


23 1 24 1 35 1 13 




who have college degrees 


1 


No. Degree Degree 


No. 


84 15 


No 






-| 64 












who have taught manual training one 


year 


1 to 3 yrs. 


4 to 7 yrs. 


8 yrs. plus 


No. 


48 


35 


16 















1 to 3 schools 



4 to 6 schools 



No. who have taught in more than one school 

No! 
No. 
No. 
No. 



86 



13 



who received $1,000 or less the first year of teaching I 56 

who received more than $1,000 first year I 39 

receiving salary less than $1,500 during 1921-22 | 26 

receiving salary over $1,500 during 1921-22 j 71 





1 Out of Texas | 

.' 36 


In Texas 


No. who were trained in Texas schools 


53 




| No Certificate' 


Certificate 


No. of teachers having a certificate of some kind... 


61 


33 



From the beginning in 1896 when manual training was 
first introduced in the public schools at Austin, the problem 
of securing qualified teachers who could measure up to the 
other teachers of the school has been a serious one. In- 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 39 

stead of having the University, A. & M. College, and the nor- 
mal schools take steps to train and provide properly qualified 
teachers, they were imported from schools of other states. 
Too often these teachers lacked proper training, were young, 
inexperienced, and over-paid, which facts caused just crit- 
icism of the work. 

At this time as shown in above table, out of the ninety- 
nine teachers reporting it will be noted that only 53 have re- 
ceived their training in Texas schools. 

In order to ascertain the present status of the work in the 
normal schools, the following table (see p. 41) has been 
compiled from a questionnaire sent to the normal schools 
to find out what is being done for improving the teachers 
of manual training. 

From these data it seems there is no definite standard 
course being offered by all of these schools. Definite 
records of those who have taken these courses have not been 
kept as the Sam Houston Normal could not furnish any 
figures. The North Texas Normal College and the West 
Texas Normal sent no data. The East Texas Normal and 
the Sul Ross Normal are new schools, which accounts for 
figures shown. 

From the foregoing it appears that : 

1. The majority of manual training teachers are not as 
well prepared in special and general education as they 
should be for the work. 

2. That the training schools — the normals and other in- 
stitutions of learning — have not established standards to 
train teachers for definite work and have not taken the in- 
terest in this phase of education that it so richly deserves. 

3. That school boards and superintendents have had to 
set up their own standards in selecting teachers. This has 
resulted in confusion, poor work and over-paid teachers in 
many cases. 

4. No standards for courses in the schools where manual 
training is taught have been set up in the state. Each 
school makes its own course and standard. This being the 



40 University of Texas Bulletin 

case, no two cities offer the same course for the same kind 
of shop work or drawing. 

5. No state or local examination or test is required of 
the manual training teacher before he is employed. No 
certificate showing his qualifications is required and none is 
issued to him. 

6. The 37th legislature passed a certificate law which 
requires all teachers of special subjects to have college train- 
ing after 1925 before they can teach these subjects in the 
public schools. Bulletin 141, State Department of Educa- 
tion. 

WHAT SHOULD BE 

1. To meet the conditions of the new certificate law the 
University of Texas, A. & M. College, and the normal colleges 
should establish standard courses for the preparation of 
manual training and vocational guidance teachers. These 
courses should include courses in general education, psy- 
chology, methods of teaching, history of education, trade 
analysis, and vocational guidance. When a certificate or di- 
ploma is given, it should state what kind of work the teacher 
receiving it is prepared to teach. 

2. A standard adequate minimum equipment located in 
a well lighted room of proper size should be required of the 
school board before the work shall be recognized by the 
State Department of Education for approval. 

3. Every school having a four-year high-school course 
in manual training, if offering it at all, should have a try-out 
or vocational guidance course. 

4. In the larger cities where there are a number of in- 
dustries and large business concerns, both wholesale and 
retail, which employ many boys and girls who have not 
finished high school, there should be offered trade prepar- 
atory courses to fit for a definite vocation. Part-time co- 
operative courses should be offered to those still in school, 
and part-time instruction should be made available to em- 
ployed boys and girls as general education, trade extension, 
or trade preparatory in content. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 41 
SCHOOLS 





01 

S * 

- - 

o *S 

M o 
re 1 
* 

«J 

WO 


"5 
£ 

1-2 

go 

t- 1 v 

J3 St 

5 ° 

Zo 


"3 

Is 

reO 
to " 

0) — 

£5 


73 « 
£.£ 
^ a 

S«i 

to Q) 

° St 

"so 
too 


2 «> 

£ = 

o > 

25 
g§ 

3 1 

o i 

re o 

COO 


a] 

£ st 
&£. 

££ S 

3 o C 
O O re 

coZco 


Total No. persons enrolled in 
manual training teacher 
courses: 


55 


No 
data 
sent 

in 


No 
data 
sent 

in 


16 


Re- 
port 
no 
rec- 
ord 


1075 


Total No. finishing one year 
Total No. finishing two years.... 
Total No. finishing three years.. 


46 
22 
10 

8 

12 

8 






10 





1 

1 




680 






420 






180 


Total No. finishing four years 
and graduated 






160 


No. who have taught manual 
training after taking course.. 






415 


No. teachers from your school 
now teaching M. T. in Texas.. 
















Subjects offered in training 
teachers of M. T. and No. 
hours devoted to each. 


u 

W 
6 


C 
CO 






u 

a 

6 

2 






U 

X 
6 


CO 


Bench work in wood 




18 
12 

8 












20 

15 

5 

5 


610 


Machine wood work 








72 


5 




580 


Wood turning 








500 


Pattern making 
















180 


Molding and foundry 


















Forging 




















Machine shop 










36 
36 


4 
6 








Concrete and cement 




8 












Art metal 














Auto mechanics 
















5 


80 


Plumbing 


















Printing 




















Electrical work 
















5 

20 

10 

5 

5 




Mechanical drawing 




12 

12 
12 






72 
72 
36 


8 
12 

10 




600 


Psychology 








510 


Principles of teaching 








480 


History of education 








210 






8 














Algebra 








108 


3 




10 

15 

5 


400 


Geometry 










380 


Trigonometry 










108 


5 




260 














Vocational guidance 





















42 University of Texas Bulletin 

5. All cities of 50,000 or over should have a local director 
who is fully equipped to organize and supervise all phases 
of the work. 

HOW CAN TEXAS APPROACH AN IDEAL STATUS? 

1. All the institutions of learning which prepare teachers 
for service should get together, set up standards, and pull 
together to maintain them. 

2. Work with the State Department of Education to 
have such laws passed as will bring about these ideals. 

3. Offer summer courses for teachers already in service 
so that they may prepare in a reasonable time to meet the 
requirements set up by the state for manual training 
teachers. 

4. Offer courses for superintendents and principals to 
train them for more sympathetic cooperation and super- 
vision of the work. 

5. Aid the Department of Education in preparing in bul- 
letin form a standard course for each kind of work to be 
taught, giving in detail the minimum equipment required, 
qualifications of teacher, plans or rooms showing arrange- 
ment of equipment, heating, lighting, etc. These will be of 
great value to the teachers as well as the school authorities. 



SURVEY OF THE NEEDS IN HOME-MAKING 
EDUCATION IN TEXAS 

Miss Jessie Harris 

Director of Home Economics, State Department of 

Education 

(Bulletin No. 37, Federal Board for Vocational Education, 
Survey of the Needs in the Field of Vocational Home Eco- 
nomics Education, has served as a guide in making this 
study specifically for Texas. 

This study is made only for the white population of 
Texas. A similar study is needed for determining the steps 
Texas should take in home-making training for the negroes) . 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE VOCATION OF HOME-MAKING 
IN TEXAS 

(Figures from U. S. Census Report, 1910). 

Total number of white women over 21 years of age — 
722,063. 

The census figures show that 80% of all women over 21 
years of age are home-makers. On this estimate, Texas 
has 577,650 white women actively engaged in home-making. 

The figures show that more people are engaged in farm- 
ing than in any other occupation in Texas. 

The total number of white farmers in Texas is 357,249. 
(Figures from State Department of Agriculture). 

There are, therefore, 1.6 times as many women engaged 
in home-making in Texas as there are persons engaged in 
any other occupation — or, 220,401 more women engaged in 
home-making than men (and women) engaged in farming. 

IS HOME-MAKING TRAINING NEEDED? 

Since home-making, judged by numbers, is the chief occu- 
pation of the citizens of Texas, is any training needed for 
this occupation ? 



44 University of Texas Bulletin 

Here again statistics are interesting. According to the 
vital statistics {World Almanac, 1921) 13% of all deaths in 
Texas in 1918 were of children under 1 year of age. It is 
agreed by authorities that ignorance of the mothers is the 
chief cause of death during this first year. Poverty is also 
a contributing cause, but "ignorance increases the evils of 
poverty." Increased knowledge of child feeding, and in- 
struction in selecting and buying food has decreased the in- 
fant death rate even under conditions of great poverty, 
proving that ignorance is the greater factor in infant mor- 
tality. 

Of those children who do survive the critical period of in- 
fancy and reach school age, many are suffering the serious 
handicap of malnutrition. Studies made by the home eco- 
nomics extension service of the University of Texas, through 
nutrition clinics conducted in public schools of all parts of 
Texas, show that 30% of the children in the first three 
grades are more than 10% under weight. Dr. Emerson of 
Boston, an authority on malnutrition, considers that chil- 
dren as much as 7%, or more, under normal weight, are on 
the danger line. If children 7% under weight were included 
in the Texas studies, the percent of under-nourished chil- 
dren would be greater than 30%. 

That ignorance rather than poverty is responsible for 
this condition, is proved by the fact that the investigations 
show that the percentage of under-nourished children in 
well-to-do families is appallingly large; and further, that 
an increase of knowledge of nutrition on the part of the 
mother and child has restored many children readily to 
normal weight and health. 

These reasons are enough to convince one that training 
for home-making is necessary, but there are still further 
arguments. The home-maker is the chief spender and she 
therefore needs to know the goods she is consuming. A 
cotton buyer can waste or save thousands of dollars by the 
inaccuracy or accuracy of his knowledge of cotton. If the 
home-maker needs this knowledge, should she get it from 
the clerk, the grocer, the retailer ; or should it be a part of 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 45 

the education or training for her life work which it is the 
function of the state to provide through the public schools? 
There is also the further consideration, that home activities 
have so changed, and commodities have so multiplied, and 
conditions so changed, that the training needed for home- 
making cannot be gained at home as it formerly was. 

WHAT OPPORTUNITIES DO THE TEXAS HOME-MAKERS, PRESENT 
AND FUTURE, HAVE FOR SECURING THE TRAINING NEEDED? 

White, only 

Total number of girls of high school age in Texas 163,733 

(Scholastic enumeration of 1919-20 — State Superin- 
tendent's Report). 
Number of girls in high school 62,397 

Girls of high school age not in school 101,336 

Please note that there are more girls of school age not in 
school than in school, and remember that Texas has a com- 
pulsory school attendance law on the statute books. The 
present school law is fairly well enforced, but it extends only 
to 14 years of age. Should Texas extend the compulsory 
school age?* 

The school apportionment paid by the State of Texas in 
1920-21 was $14.50 per capita. This was paid for each 
child of school age enumerated. 

At $14.50 per capita Texas spent $1,469,372 in 1920-21 
for the education of 101,336 white girls who were not in the 
public schools. Should some of this money be spent in the 
education of these girls through part-time and evening 
schools? Does Texas need a compulsory part-time school 
system such as 22 states have already fostered? 



*The above numbers do not include the girls who attended 
private schools. Therefore, the total number of girls of school age 
attending secondary schools would be somewhat larger; but, even 
considering these there would still be an overwhelming majority of 
girls of school age out of school. 



46 University of Texas Bulletin 

The number of classified high schools in Texas, 

1920-21 549 

(Bulletin 132, State Dept. of Education). 
Number of schools having any accredited work in 

home economics 161, or 29 plus % 

(Bulletin 132, State Dept. of Education). 

The length of course is from one-half to four years, 
averaging 328 years of work. The average number of stu- 
dents per class is generously estimated at 16, which means 
5,248 girls in Texas get as much as 1 year of home economics 
training, or about one girl out of twelve in high school and 
one out of every thirty-one of high-school age in Texas. 

There is little or no opportunity for the 577,650 home- 
makers to secure instruction. Were such an opportunity 
offered many would avail themselves of it. 

TEXAS HOME ECONOMICS TEACHERS 

(The figures herein given were compiled from Bulletin 
127 of the State Department of Education— 1920) . 

Teachers of home economics are all high school graduates. 

Number of years college preparation for teaching home 
economics : 

Number Per cent 

One year preparation 12 4.8 

Two years preparation 43 17.1 

Three years preparation 55 21.9 

Four years preparation 141 56.2 

Total 251 

Of the total 221, thirty-nine were trained by institutions 
outside the state of Texas, or 15.5%. 

It is impossible to estimate how many of these teachers 
were adequately prepared for teaching home-making. It is 
safe to assume that only those with degrees had any pro- 
fessional training; that no experience in home-making was 
required ; that not all the degree graduates had training in 
methods of presenting their subject. 



Conference Upon The T eacher -Problem in Texas 47 

The greatest need in teacher-training is for an improve- 
ment in the methods courses. Most of the technical in- 
struction in the teacher-training institutions is good, but 
very few of the graduates have had sufficient work in 
methods of teaching or in practice teaching. The vocational 
home economics teachers and teacher-training courses are 
an exception. Both professional training and home-making 
experience are required in addition to technical training for 
the teachers in these schools (46 in Texas, 1921-22). 

No teacher-training institution gives a separate course 
with the child as the central idea. Such courses are needed. 
Portions of such work are given in various courses, but the 
work is only theoretical, and no practical work in child care 
and training is given. Such work cannot be taught in our 
secondary schools until teachers are trained for it. Courses 
in hygiene and home care of the sick are not general enough 
in the teacher-training institutions, and, in some instances, 
even when given, are inadequate. 

HOW SHALL TEXAS MEET HER OPPORTUNITY AND OBLIGATION 
IN THIS REGARD? 

I. The teacher: 

"She should be a woman of sound training with sympa- 
thetic understanding of needs of pupils ; and with ability to 
analyze the occupation of home-making for the community 
in which she lives." She should have some experience in 
the vocation of home-making, and her course of training 
should be broad enough to include all home activities and not 
merely cooking and sewing. The child is the center of 
home activities and should be the center of training courses 
for teachers of home-making. 

II. Schools : 

1. Texas should provide short unit courses for the older 
groups of girls and women — (evening schools). 

2. Texas should provide part-time schools or classes for 
girls out of school, but of school age. 



48 University of Texas Bulletin 

3. Texas should provide courses of study in home-making 
in every high school in Texas and two years of such work 
should be required of every girl. (Nearly all high schools 
now require two years of algebra of every girl ; surely such 
a requirement would be harder to justify than a require- 
ment of home economics). 

4. Texas elementary schools and junior high schools 
should offer home-making instruction in the 6th and 7th 
grades since a large majority of girls leave school before 
entering the high school. 

III. Course of study: 

At present the instruction in home-making consists of 
cooking and sewing (except in a limited number of cases). 
The content should be more varied. It should, in addition, 
include at least the care of children. 

Trained Teachers: 

Such teachers will be experienced in home activities; 
trained in technical subject-matter to be taught ; trained in 
the presentation of their subject-matter. 

Need for Funds: 

No state has approached an adequate program for home- 
making education without appropriating money for foster- 
ing home economics teaching in day schools, evening schools, 
and part-time schools. 

The following facts stand out as factors : 

1. Separate communities cannot be depended upon to 
see the need. Leadership is the state's prerogative. 

2. Home-making education is expensive for the follow- 
ing reasons: 

a. The equipment is costly. 

b. A teacher can teach only 16 to 20 in a class. 

c. Periods must be 90 minutes in length ; hence only half 
as many classes can be handled per day. Facts b. and c. 
make home-making instruction four times as expensive as 
some other subjects. 

d. There is a running expense outlay for supplies, etc. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 49 

In addition to appropriating funds for the day school, 
there should be funds for evening and part-time school 
work. Such work is more difficult to promote without 
state aid than the day school program, because the public 
school people have not yet awakened to the problem outside 
the day school, and, because of the inadequacy of funds for 
day school work, it is difficult to persuade them to spend any 
school funds for evening and part-time schools. 

It is interesting to note the emphasis put on agricultural 
and home-making education by Texas in its appropriations 
for 1921-22. 

All appropriations for colleges and normal schools are 
omitted and only those that are for persons outside the col- 
lege are calculated. (No Federal funds are counted. If 
Federal funds were counted the contrast would be even more 
marked). 

Agricultural Experiment Station $113,950.00 

Agricultural Experiment Sub-Stations 89,585.00 

Extension Service, (the total $218,676 minus the 
amount budgeted for home economics exten- 
sion) 169,726.00 

Pink Bollworm 125,000.00 

State Department of Agriculture 82,000.00 

Warehouse and markets 271,050.00 

Vocational Agriculture 1 10,000.00 

(Note: A large Federal appropriation is available.) 

Total $944,011.00 

Total per farmer 2.62 plus 

For Home-making Education: 

Extension service $ 48,950.00 

(Figure furnished by State Home Demonstration 
Agent, 1921-22 budget). 
Vocational Home Economics 30,000.00 

Total $ 78,950.00 

Amount per home-maker. 0.13 plus 

More than 20 times as much money is spent per farmer 
as per home-maker for educating those in these respective 
vocations in Texas. 



50 University of Texas Bulletin 

Is education for the farmer 20 times as important as ed- 
ucation for the homemaker? Of course ignorance and care- 
lessness in dealing with the pink bollworm destroys cotton 
bolls, and ignorance and carelessness in feeding babies can 
only destroy the babies. 

This comparison is drawn between agriculture and home- 
making, because these two occupations rank numerically 
higher than any others in Texas. It is not the purpose to 
show that the state has appropriated a cent too much for 
agriculture. In fact, when the farmer prospers it means 
prosperity for all, and the schools also prosper. However, 
when the state also acknowledges its responsibility equally 
in the education of home-makers, will it not mean a new 
distinctive era of prosperity and well-being? For, if our 
civilization is built on agriculture it is built still more 
fundamentally on homes. Let Texas continue its generous 
support of agriculture, but hasten the day when home-mak- 
ing education will be one of this great state's projects. 

STATUS OF HOME ECONOMICS EDUCATION IN SOME OF THE 

OTHER STATES 

While no state in the union has, as yet, adequately pro- 
vided for home-making education many of them have made 
rapid progress in this phase of education in the past five 
years. The Federal Vocational Education Act, which was 
passed by Congress in 1917, has done much to promote in- 
terest in and to advance home-making education in all of 
the states. The Federal subsidy available for this work is 
very small — only one-fifth of the amount available for 
agricultural or trade and industrial education — but Federal 
recognition of the importance of this work has given it a 
new impetus and has done much to stimulate the states to 
increased effort to provide home-making training for their 
girls. If the Home Economics Amendment to the Voca- 
tional Education Act which is now before Congress passes, 
there will be a more equitable division of the funds for voca- 
tional education, and home-making education will receive its 
just share; but in any event it will still remain the respons- 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 51 

ibility of the state to see to it that its educational plans are 
broad enough to place home-making training within the 
reach of every potential home-maker through all day and 
part-time schools, and every actual home-maker through 
evening classes. 

Notable among the states which are keenly alive to the 
needs for home-making training for all of its girls and 
women and to the responsibility of the state furnishing this 
training is our neighbor state, Louisiana. This state has 
passed a law requiring that home economics be taught in 
the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades two double 
periods a day five times a week. Practically every high 
school in the state is offering a four year home economics 
course. Money was appropriated by the state to carry on 
this work until the schools were able to support it them- 
selves. The appropriation was then withdrawn. The state 
at present appropriates money for supervision only. 

Indiana requires home economics in the seventh and 
eighth grades. 

Utah reports that "public opinion says that every girl 
must have at least one unit of home economics." 

Arizona allows up to $2,500 of state funds to any schools 
for industrial education including home economics. 

Utah appropriates the same amount of money for home 
economics as for agricultural education. 

New York state appropriates two-thirds of the first home 
economics teacher's salary up to $1000 provided she spends 
her entire time teaching home-making subjects, and the sec- 
ond teacher of home economics may receive from the state 
one-half of her salary up to $1000 provided she spends her 
entire time teaching home-making. 

The above are only a few of the states that are making 
excellent beginnings in working out adequate home eco- 
nomics programs, and the time is undoubtedly fast approach- 
ing when the training for the greatest of all vocations — 
Homemaking — will receive its due consideration and support 
by educational leaders all over the country. Can Texas 
afford to fall behind in this movement? 



A STUDY OF THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE IN 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF TEXAS 

Martin L. Hayes 

Professor of Vocational Teaching, Agricultural and 

Mechanical College of Texas 

Introduction 

In the short time that was available for this study it 
seemed best to limit the study to the high-school work. It 
was impossible in the time limit to study all the elementary 
schools and test out the agricultural teaching. It is hereby 
recommended that such a study be made by the State De- 
partment of Education or such committee or individual as 
the State Board of Education may designate. 

SECURING THE DATA 

The information had not been tabulated in the State 
Department of Education so that the list of teachers of high- 
school agriculture could be secured. A questionnaire was 
sent out to all the county superintendents asking for the 
name and addresses of each white teacher in the county 
teaching agriculture to students above the seventh grade. 
Replies were received from 56 county superintendents re- 
porting 440 names. 

Of the 440 questionnaires sent to these teachers, 119 were 
returned in time for this report. Of the 119 replies, 11 re- 
ported that agriculture was not being taught, 26 reports 
showed that the course being taught was not being taken by 
high-school students, 70 reports indicated that the course 
was of high-school grade and general in nature rather than 
vocational, 12 indicated classes under the provisions of the 
Smith-Hughes Act. In non-vocational agriculture the study 
is limited to the reports of 70 schools ; in vocational agricul- 
ture the study is limited to the reports of 70 schools; in 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 53 

vocational agriculture the reports from the 12 schools are 
supplemented by information that was available from other 
sources about the rest of the 85 white teachers of vocational 
agriculture under the provisions of the Smith-Hughes Act. 

TEACHERS OF NON-VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE 

Teaching Experience — 

Per cent. 

Percentage of teachers teaching their first year 8.6 

Range of teaching experience in years 1 — 30.0 

Median number of years teaching experience 7.0 

Percentage of teachers teaching agriculture their first time 17.0 

Range of agriculture teaching experience in years 1 — 15.0 

Median number years agricultural teaching experience.... 3.0 

School Attendance — 

Percentage having attended high school or its equivalent.. 98.6 
Percentage having graduated from high school or equiv- 
alent 78.6 

Percentage having not the equivalent of high school 

graduation 21.4 

Percentage having training of college grade 68.6 

Percentage having graduated from two year normal course 22.8 

Percentage having graduated from four year college 

course 7.0 

Percentage having attended no institution of college 

grade 31.4 

Agricultural Training — 

Percentage having no school instruction in agriculture.... 27.1 

Percentage having had agricultural instruction only in 

high school 21.4 

Percentage having had agricultural instruction in college 

or normal school 51.5 

Percentage having had agricultural instruction in. normal 

school 38.7 

Percentage having had agricultural instruction in agri- 
cultural colleges 5.7 

Percentage reporting instruction in general agriculture in 

normal school or agricultural college 41.4 

Average number of weeks studying general agriculture 37.0 
Percentage reporting more specialized courses in agricul- 
ture in normal school and college 24.3 

Training in Science — 

Percentage reporting no science training 11.4 

Percentage reporting physics of secondary or college grade 71.0 



54 University of Texas Bulletin 

Percentage reporting chemistry of secondary or college 

grade 52.0 

Percentage reporting botany of secondary or college grade 39.0 
Percentage reporting zoology of secondary or college 

grade 35.0 

Percentage reporting biology of secondary or college 

grade 32.0 

Percentage reporting geology of secondary or college 

grade 20.0 

Percentage reporting bacteriology of secondary or college 

grade 16.0 

Percentage reporting physiology and anatomy of second- 
ary or college grade 39.0 

Average total number of weeks devoted to secondary or 

collegiate science 100. 

Training in Economics and Sociology — 

Percentage reporting training in economics and sociology 46.0 

Percentage reporting general economics 19.0 

Percentage reporting agricultural economics 15.0 

Percentage reporting general sociology 12.0 

Percentage reporting rural sociology 26.0 

Average total number of weeks devoted to study of eco- 
nomics and sociology 24.0 

Training in Education — 

Percentage reporting no professional training..., 8.6 

Percentage reporting training in psychology 79.0 

Percentage reporting training in methods of teaching 79.0 

Percentage reporting training in history of education 65.0 

Percentage reporting training in school administration 54.0 

Average total number of weeks devoted to studying pro- 
fessional subjects 74.0 

Nature of Course Taught — 

Percentage teaching general agriculture 94.3 

Percentage teaching plant production only 5.7 

Percentage reporting grades below the eighth in class 

with high-school students 25.7 

Median number class periods a week 5.0 

Median number minutes in period 30.0 

Total number boys reported in classes 432.0 

Total number girls reported in classes 385.0 

Average number pupils per teacher 11.6 

Percentage reporting boys only in class 8.6 

Percentage reporting girls only in class 7.4 

Percentage reporting all members of class carrying home 

projects 14.3 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 55 

Percentage reporting some home projects 27.1 

Percentage reporting community work not agricultural.... 20.0 

Percentage reporting agricultural community work 20.0 

Percentage reporting no community work... 80.0 

Farm Experience — 

Percentage reporting farm experience, (at least farm 

residence) 70.0 

TEACHERS OF VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE 

Teaching Experience — 

Data not available. 
School Attendance — 

Percentage having at least two years of college work 100.0 

Percentage of agricultural graduates 41.3 

Percentage having attended an agricultural college but 

not yet graduates 51.7 

Percentage lacking less than one-half year of agricultural 

degree 19.0 

Percentage having received their agricultural training in 

institutions other than agricultural college 6.9 

Training in Agriculture and Related Subjects — 

The minimum requirements set up by the state plan for 1921-1922 
are at least two years of college work plus 42 semester hours of 
technical agriculture. The requirements for 1922-1923 are 
graduation from an agricultural college or its equivalent. The 
agricultural college course required of vocational teachers is 
made up approximately as follows: 

Agricultural subjects 38-40 per cent. 

Sciences 25-30 per cent. 

Humanities 15-20 per cent. 

Professional subjects 10-15 per cent. 

The teacher of vocational agriculture must have had at least two 
years of practical experience on the farm after his twelfth 
birthday. 
Professional Training — 

The minimum requirements all teachers must meet is six semesters 
of education. Practically all have twelve semester hours or 
more. 
Nature of Course Taught — 

Practically all the vocational schools are offering two years of 
agriculture. A few are offering a third year. The two years 
are plant production and animal production. A third year con- 
sists of farm management and rural economics. Farm shop 
work is made a part of each course. Courses are usually al- 
ternated so that the same course is taught only in alternate 
years. 



56 University of Texas Bulletin 

Percentage of schools teaching plant production 40.0 

Percentage of schools teaching animal production 40.0 

Percentage of schools teaching both animal production 

and plant production 13.0 

Minimum time required for instruction — 120 minutes a 

day. 
Six months' supervised home projects required of all 

pupils. 
Community work required of all teachers. 
Total number boys reported by 50 teachers (the only data 

available) 842.0 

Total number girls reported by 50 teachers 96.0 

Average number pupils per teacher 18.0 

Of the 96 girls reported 49 are reported by 6 schools. 

Percentage reporting boys only 84.0 

Percentage reporting girls only None. 

(Admission of girls to the vocational class is discouraged.) 

STANDARDS FOR VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE 

Objectives — 

It is the business of vocational agriculture to make 
farmers or to make better farmers. If the boy has not yet 
begun farming as a vocation, this instruction is to prepare 
him for that vocation by inducing him through his class 
work and individual study to participate in the enterprises 
of farming. If the boy has become a farmer already, voca- 
tional agriculture brings him to a solution ot the immediate 
problems he has found. Some pupils use vocational agri- 
culture as a means toward general education or towards 
college entrance, but if the course is to be strictly vocational, 
those objectives must not determine the content or the 
methods. 

Content and Scope — 

There is no such thing as a course in vocational agricul- 
ture that is adapted to all parts of the United States or to 
all parts of Texas. It is inadvisable for Lubbock in its 
course in vocational agriculture to try to prepare its stu- 
dents to practice farming in the Rio Grande Valley. Par- 
ticipation is an essential part of the training, and it is seldom 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 5T 

possible or desirable to attempt this participation in the 
enterprises of farming except in the community where the 
school is located. 

Since vocational agriculture aims to prepare the student 
for efficient and successful farming in a given community, 
the type of farming practiced there and adapted to that 
community determines the content of the course. To select 
the content of a course for a given community, it is neces- 
sary to have specific information about successful farming 
practices in the community. This information is usually 
obtained by the new teacher through the survey method. 
An attempt is made to analyze the farmer's job, to find out 
what he does, how he does it, and when he does it. If im- 
provements can be induced or introduced, such amendments 
and new enterprises may be made a part of the vocational 
course provided it has been demonstrated reliably that they 
will be successful in the community. 

Vocational agriculture should begin with the boy where 
it finds him. It should test his knowledge and skill in farm- 
ing obtained from experience, and should build on this ex- 
perience such new material as is needed to round him out 
into a successful farmer and citizen of the community. It 
would be folly to take time of the class to teach the boy how 
to plow if he were already an expert plowman. So it be- 
comes necessary to take the analysis of the job of the farmer 
and use it as a score card with which to check up the ac- 
complishments of the individual student and determine 
where he is lacking in knowledge, skill, and attitudes. 
These shortcomings constitute the content of the course. 
The important enterprise of the community such as the 
phases of live stock farming practiced, and the kinds of 
field and forage crops, truck crops, and fruit grown, con- 
stitute an important part of the course. In addition to 
these, then should be included a study of the care, manipula- 
tion, and repairs of farm machinery, construction and re- 
pair of farm buildings and equipment, the business side of 
farming, the marketing problems, and the relation of one 
farmer to another in co-operative undertakings. 



58 University of Texas Bulletin 

This seems too big a job for the high school to accomplish. 
So it is in one or two years, but if the high school allows 
the boy to decide for himself whether or not he will pre- 
pare to enter college and select his course accordingly, the 
vocational boy in four years of high-school work can make 
a good start toward successful farming. When he grad- 
uates from the high school and becomes a full time farmer 
instead of a part time farmer as he has been for several 
years, he is not yet through with his vocational training. 
He is ready to take a "post graduate" course in part time or 
evening work during slack seasons in company with other 
farmers of all ages above sixteen years. Through a short unit 
course of four to ten weeks meeting two or three hours a 
week, he works deeper into any phase of his subject from 
year to year or solves special problems that arise from sea- 
son to season. 

Such, in brief, is the idea of vocational agriculture. It 
is intended primarily for the boy who is not going to col- 
lege, but who is to go from high school to the full time 
practice of farming. Many boys who enter the class will 
not make this use of the subject. It is doubtful if many 
girls will practice farming except in very specialized forms. 
The presence of girls in the vocational agriculture class 
raises a doubt in the mind of the casual observer if the 
course is really vocational. In most cases girls act as a 
hindrance to the teacher in his effort to make the course 
really vocational, and their admission to the class is not to 
be encouraged unless the course is so specialized as to make 
it vocational for girls, or the particular girls admitted are 
in earnest about practicing farming. 

It should be stated that this discussion of vocational agri- 
culture is not limited to agriculture classes subsidized by 
Federal funds in accordance with the provisions of the 
Smith-Hughes Act. 

Qualifications of Teacher — 

The teacher of vocational agriculture should have those 
qualities of personality desirable in all teachers, such as 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 59 

address, proper personal appearance, optimism, reserve, 
enthusiasm, fairness, sincerity, sympathy, vitality, scholar- 
ship, etc. He should be in sympathy with rural life and 
should be able to lead farm boys. The boy scout 
leader type of man has many qualities of personality advis- 
able and desirable in the teacher of vocational agriculture. 
Many of the qualities mentioned above are native and, while 
they may be improved, cannot be acquired outright. What 
are the qualifications he must acquire ? 

He must have adequate agricultural training, both theo- 
retical and practical. He should be able to take the place of 
the most successful farmer in the community and make 
equally as good showing. He should be the best farmer in 
the community. No longer are we content to have a teacher 
of agriculture able to tell a farmer how he ought to farm, 
but unable to follow his own advice. This means he must 
be able to farm in the community where he is employed to 
teach. It is a difficult matter to teach a man in four years 
of college work to be a successful farmer for any and every 
community in Texas. The college work needs to be supple- 
mented by farm experience in a type of farming similar to 
that practiced in the given community and under similar 
conditions . It is difficult to train a teacher of vocational 
agriculture to teach in every and any community in Texas. 
The agricultural training and experience of a teacher for 
the Panhandle should be very different from those for the 
country around Jacksonville or for the country around Hous- 
ton. Facilities must be available in the teacher-training 
institution for time to specialize in certain types of agricul- 
ture adapted to certain sections of the state. 

The teacher of agriculture must be not only a good farmer 
but must be what we might call a 'trouble-shooter" and ad- 
viser for the farmers. It is very easy to run the automobile 
when everything goes right, but when the engine stops and 
refuses to start, more expert knowledge must be available. 
Just so one may be a good farmer so long as conditions are 
normal. The teacher needs to be able to sense the difficulty 
and prevent disaster. 



60 University of Texas Bulletin 

It is not enough to be able to perform skilfully the or- 
dinary operations on the farm, to produce successfully the 
various crops, livestock, etc., and to interest boys in agri- 
cultural activities. He must understand the intricate prob- 
lems of marketing and co-operative understandings so he 
can lead his community into proper attitudes toward the 
big problems that cannot be solved by individual action. He 
must also be a skilful teacher in those methods best adapted 
to the nature of the subject taught. While he should be equal 
to the best teacher in the school in training, personality and 
real culture, he is fortunate if he is free from all idiosyn- 
crasies that mark one as a "pedagog." His general bear- 
ing should impress one as that of a scientific farmer and 
business man rather than the traditional school teacher. 

It is evident that the nature of the work suggested calls 
for high class native ability and for thorough and specialized 
training. Nothing short of a four year college course in a 
first class agricultural college should be accepted as a start- 
ing point for the teaching of vocational agriculture. Just 
as the vocational student is to pursue "post graduate" work 
in the short unit courses, so the teacher of vocational agri- 
culture should pursue graduate work each year, but not 
necessarily the traditional type of graduate work. He 
should have short-unit courses to give him help where his 
experience shows he needs it. There should be a definite 
plan of improvement of teachers in service each year. It 
cannot be expected that the job of the teacher of vocational 
agriculture can be done well unless some such standards 
for teachers as are suggested above are attained. 

STANDARDS FOR NON-VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE 

Objectives — 

The term non-vocational agriculture may include a wide 
variety of objectives. It merely excludes the vocational 
idea. Of the numerous objectives that may in different in- 
stances influence the choice of subject matter and the method 
of instruction, only a few will be mentioned. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 61 

Agriculture may be used as general science to introduce 
the class to the field of natural science and guide them in 
their choice of the science courses in later years in high 
school or college. It may be used as a means of inducing 
appreciation and love of nature and rural life. It may be 
used as a general education of a scientific, nature as are the 
average courses in geology and geography. It may be used 
as prevocational training to try out the pupil in interest and 
aptitudes and guide him in his choice of a vocation. 

Nature and Scope — 

The nature and scope of non-vocational agriculture will 
depend upon the objectives of the teacher as will the other 
characteristics of the course. Usually less time per week 
will be devoted to the study' than in the class of vocational 
agriculture, and in most cases not more than one year of 
work will be offered. If it is to serve as an introduction to 
the field of science, agricultural facts will be used as a con- 
veyance to carry the fundamental principles of various 
sciences. The study of farming will be used as a means of 
motivating the study of abstract science and as a means of 
tying scientific principles to their applications in the en- 
vironment of the pupil. If it is to develop appreciation and 
love of nature and rural life, stress will be placed upon the 
beauty spots in nature that surround the farmer, the won- 
ders of natural science as observed in agriculture and nature, 
and the wonderful and beautiful achievements man has ac- 
complished in the modern up-to-date equipment and the 
beautiful rural and suburban homes. If it is to serve merely 
as facts that are good to know, a general education, a wide 
scope is offered to the teacher and choice will be determined 
by a variety of factors. If it is to serve as a "try-out" or as 
a guidance, it will constitute a study about the farmer's life 
and vocation with enough participation in the activities of 
the farm to test the pupil's interest and aptitude. In too 
many cases so-called vocational agriculture has been really 
prevocational agriculture. 



62 University of Texas Bulletin 

Qualification of Teacher — 

The teacher of agriculture as an introduction to science 
should be chiefly a scientist, thoroughly trained in all the 
sciences, at least those that are usually offered in the better 
type of high schools of the state, and interested in the agri- 
cultural environment of the pupil. He should know enough 
of the facts of agriculture to understand the practical appli- 
cation of the scientific truths so that he does not misrepre- 
sent the facts of agriculture. The teacher of agriculture as 
appreciation needs to be an enthusiastic lover of the beauti- 
ful in nature and in agriculture, and trained to interpret, if 
not produce, the beautiful in architecture, landscape art, etc. 
It is essential also that such teacher know enough of the cold 
facts abQut life and the vocation of the farmer, so that he or 
she will not paint the picture in such brilliant hues or will 
not surround the head of the farmer with such a halo that 
the course will mislead the student who may chance to use 
it as vocational guidance. The teacher of prevocational 
agriculture needs to know all about the vocation he can. He 
should have also a broad understanding of other vocations 
so he will not be unduly prejudiced in favor of agriculture 
and against other vocations. 

It was clearly pointed out that no institution that is not 
essentially an agricultural college of the first rank can hope 
to turn out as graduates men qualified for the diverse condi- 
tions the teacher of vocational agriculture must meet. 
While the agricultural college graduate will be fitted to 
teach all the non-vocational courses listed above, with the 
possible exception of the course for appreciation, other in- 
stitutions of college rank including the State University, the 
denominational colleges and universities, the College of In- 
dustrial Arts, the state normal colleges, etc., can train suc- 
cessfully teachers of non-vocational agriculture without in- 
stalling equipment that approaches in amount and diversity 
that essential for an agricultural college of the first rank. 
The course of pre-vocational agriculture, when properly 
organized and taught, is perhaps more nearly vocational 
agriculture than it is non-vocational, and hence requires 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 63 

more nearly the qualifications of the teacher of vocational 
agriculture. This is contrary to the general opinion of school 
administrators, for they are accustomed to think of the 
course in agriculture taught to rural children in the fifth, 
sixth and seventh grades by a young girl whose training 
for teaching the subject is twelve to twenty-four weeks in 
a class in general agriculture methods in a normal school, 
or eight weeks in a class in a summer normal and the suc- 
cessful passing of a written- examination. Such courses 
are usually general education courses, as are geography and 
physiology, for the students already have had their "try- 
out" in actual experience on the farm, and the course adds 
none of those experiences to the stock in trade. 

WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP? . 

In many respects the teaching of agriculture in the state 
does not reach the standards set up in the preceding para- 
graphs. Just how these standards can be reached is a long 
story and perhaps the specific recipe is not known. A few 
rather obvious suggestions are enumerated as follows: 

1. A Campaign of Education — 

A campaign of education through the teacher-training 
classes, summer normals, teacher's institutes, educational 
associations, and through the press should prepare school 
administrators and teachers to set up desirable objectives, 
select subject matter according to those objectives, and 
establish standards and requirements. A bulletin by the 
State Department of Education on this subject would be 
very helpful as a means of interpreting the State Course of 
Study. 

2. Teaching More Agriculture — 

There should be more agriculture taught in the high 
schools of the state. When the subject matter is properly 
selected, organized and taught, it will compare favorably 
with other subjects in the curriculum. 



64 University of Texas Bulletin 

There should be more vocational agriculture taught in the 
state. The statistics show that a very small percentage of 
boys fourteen years of age and over are in college. They 
also show that a very small percentage of the boys who enter 
the high school pursue courses in college. A smaller per- 
centage of rural boys go to college than of city or town boys. 
This elimination of pupils is a strong argument in favor of 
vocational training in the public schools as well as in col- 
lege, and especially in the rural high school. 

3. More Money for Vocational Agriculture — 

More money is needed for all kinds of education, 
but there are factors that make vocational agriculture more 
expensive than some other subjects. It is not the most ex- 
pensive vocational subject by any means. The chief items 
of expense are the salary of the teacher and the expense of 
transportation as he goes from farm to farm supervising 
the projects. The salary of the successful teacher of voca- 
tional agriculture ranges above the salary of the teacher of 
mathematics in the same school because the agriculture 
teacher is employed for twelve months instead of nine, and 
because his training and personal qualities are worth more 
on the market than are those of the average teacher of math- 
ematics. This is true partly because the nature of the 
agriculture teacher's work relieves him of the competition 
of boys and girls, young teachers, who have had only one 
year of college work or maybe two or have secured their 
certificate through high-school work and a teacher's exam- 
ination. 

The fact that vocational agriculture is taught in the rural 
school, where it belongs, also subjects it to the inequality of 
the present system of raising money for education. Since 
the rural schools in Texas are floundering in their attempt to 
maintain even a relatively low grade, cheap school, it be- 
comes all the more necessary for additional support if a 
relatively expensive type of work is to be introduced. In 
addition to revision of the method of raising and apportion- 
ing school funds, more extensive state aid should be given to 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 65 

the rural schools to make it possible for them to maintain 
vocational agriculture. 

4. More and Better Teachers of Agriculture — 

Along with the campaign for agriculture in more schools 
must come the training of more teachers for the positions. 
Every rural teacher should know some agriculture, for it is 
a part of the environment of teacher and pupil that must 
be used in teaching all the subjects in the curriculum. Such 
teachers can not really be called teachers of agriculture. 
The duty devolves on the normal schools to furnish the big 
majority of the rural school teachers who should be inbued 
with the spirit of agriculture and rural life. But the 
teachers of agriculture should be especially trained as are 
the teachers of physics. To furnish the supply of teachers 
of non-vocational agriculture departments of agriculture 
should be introduced into the colleges and universities so 
that students could take agriculture along with other 
sciences. The departments in the normal schools should be 
kept busy giving the agricultural point of view to prospective 
rural school teachers, and -preparing teachers of non-voca- 
tional agriculture. These institutions should discover men 
who are adapted in personality and interest to become out- 
standing teachers of vocational agriculture. Arrangements 
should be made so that such students with not to exceed 
two years' credit in such colleges can transfer to the A. & M. 
College without loss of credit, and finish preparation for 
teaching vocational agriculture. If school teachers and 
college teachers will carefully hand pick the material for 
agriculture teachers, great improvements will be made even 
though the demand increases many fold. 



A STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO THE STATUS OF 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN TEXAS 

Author: The Education and Physical Education 
Staffs of the Sam Houston Normal College 

In an effort to ascertain the facts as to the status of 
physical education in Texas public schools, and the prepara- 
tion of teachers of physical education in the elementary and 
high schools of Texas, questionnaires were sent to the 110 
superintendents of all towns and cities of 2500 population 
and above, and to the 147 County Superintendents in Texas. 
The returns were from every section of the state, and the 
information obtained is typical of conditions in the state 
as a whole. 

I. PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN TOWNS AND CITIES 

From the 54 questionnaires returned by superintendents 
of towns and cities, the following facts were obtained : 

Of the 54 cities, ten, or 18.5%, report one or more full 
time teachers or supervisors of physical education, one city 
reporting a physical education faculty of 14 full time mem- 
bers. Nine cities, 16.7%, report one or more part time 
teachers of physical education. Thirty-five, or 64.8%, of 
the cities report having no teachers of physical education. 

TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE 

Fifteen, or 27.8%, of the cities report physical education 
teachers with training. A variety in the extent and kind 
of training is found, ranging from "Military" and "Summer 
School" to graduation from a school of physical education 
of national reputation. Of these fifteen cities, only six, or 
11.1% of all reporting, have teachers holding certificates in 
physical education. 

As for experience, the 15 cities report a range from "none 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 67 

before coming here" to ten years in the case of an ex-army 
officer. The mefdian for experience is about three years. 
Salaries paid to teachers and directors of physical edu- 
cation in these fifteen cities range from $675.00 to $3,000.00 
annually, the median salary being $1,500.00. 

PHYSICAL TRAINING IN ATHLETICS 

Forty-six, or 85.2 % , of the cities report teachers coach- 
ing athletic teams, twenty-seven of these, or 50% of all, 
giving a salary increment for this work. 

54 cities report football teams. 

42 cities report diamonds for baseball teams. 

33 cities report tennis teams for boys. 

29 cities report tennis teams for girls. 

48 cities report girls' basketball teams. 

(Owing to an error in printing the questionnaire, specific 
information regarding boys' baseball and basketball teams 
was not obtained) . 

Forty, or 74.1%, of the cities report that play of school 
children is supervised. In thirty-three, or 61.1% of the 
cities, supervision of play is by the classroom teacher; in 
four, or 7.3%, by physical education teachers or directors. 

Twenty-eight, or 51.9%, of cities report play ground space 
in connection with the school, the amount of space ranging 
from nothing to 15 acres per school building, the median 
being 3 to 4 acres. 

PHYSICAL EXAMINATION 

Twenty-six, or 48.2%, of the cities give the elementary 
school children a physical examination, with a frequency 
ranging from once per year to twice monthly. The median 
frequency of examination is once a year. Sixteen, or 29.6%, 
of the cities give a physical examination to high school 
pupils, the range of frequency and the median of frequency 
being the same as for elementary school pupils. 

In nine of these sixteen cities the Red Cross or County 



68 University of Texas Bulletin 

Public Health Nurse assists in giving the physical exam- 
ination ; in seven, school nurses ; in eight, school or local 
physicians ; in two, the physical director. In several of the 
cities, the examination is given by one or more of these 
officials in co-operation. 

HEALTH, HYGIENE, AND SANITATION 

Thirty cities, or 55.6% of all, report instruction in health; 
thirty-three, or 61.1%, in hygiene; twenty-eight, or 51.9%, 
in sanitation; while four, or 7.4%, report that some attack 
is being made upon the problem of sex education. 

Instruction in health, hygiene and sanitation is given in 
eleven cities by the class room teachers ; in twelve cities by 
physiology and science teachers ; in two cities by the physical 
director ; in three by nurses ; while in three, the instruction 
is given by a combination of two or more of these. 

TYPES OF PHYSICAL TRAINING 

In sixteen, or 29.6% of the cities, physical exercises are 
given the school children; in fourteen, or 25.9%, corrective 
calisthenics; in twenty-nine, or 53.7%, class room drill. 
Thirty-seven cities, or 68.5%, report one or more of these 
types of training given by the classroom teachers, while 
four, or 7.4%, report that they are given by the director of 
physical education. 

PHYSICAL EDUCATION REQUIRED 

Thirteen cities, or 24.1%, require all pupils in the elemen- 
tary school to take physical education; while four, or 7.4%, 
report that from 50% to 90% are required to take it. 

Five cities, or 9.3%, report that physical education is re- 
quired of all high school students. 

RELATION OF FULL TIME TEACHERS TO SCHOLASTIC POPULATION 

The ten cities reporting full time teachers or directors of 
physical education range in scholastic population from 1750 
to 34,000, with the median of 6,000. Thus a small city is 
as likely to have full time teachers of physical education as 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 69 

a large city. In fact, the city reporting a physical education 
faculty of 14 full time members, Port Arthur, has a scholas- 
tic population of 5,600, or 1 full time teacher for every 400 
pupils. 

THE RELATION OF THE REQUIREMENT OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION 
IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO SCHOLASTIC POPULATION 

The thirteen cities requiring physical education of all ele- 
mentary school pupils range in scholastic population from 
900 to 34,000, the median being 3,600. Thus it is evident 
that a small city is as likely to require physical education 
of the pupils in the elementary school as is a large city. 

II. RURAL DISTRICTS 

From the 147 County Superintendents in Texas, 86 replies 
to the questionnaire were received from which the following 
facts were obtained : 

No county in the state has a full time physical director, 
but two counties report a part time physical director. 

Fifty-five, or 64%, of the 86 counties report no physical 
examination for rural school children. Thirty-one, or 36%, 
report physical examinations, ranging from physical exam- 
ination in one school of the county to all the rural schools 
of the county. Fourteen, or 16%, of the counties report 
physical examinations in all the rural schools of the county. 
These also report the examination given, in every instance, 
by the County Red Cross Nurse. Only in the case of seven 
counties is there any physical examination for rural children 
except by Red Cross Nurses. 

Practically 100% of the counties report basketball teams 
for both boys and girls. Thirty-three, or 38%, of the coun- 
ties report football teams for rural schools ranging from one 
team in a county to 25 teams in Harris County. Thirty- 
nine, or 45%, of the counties report baseball teams in rural 
schools ranging from one team in a county to 64 teams in 
Cass County. Forty-seven, or 55%, of the counties report 



70 University of Texas Bulletin 

volley-ball teams. These range from one team to a county 
to 38 teams in Runnels County. 

The coaching in all the rural schools is done by grade 
teachers. Eighteen, or 21%, of the counties report some 
systematic physical training for all the children of the rural 
districts. (The people who filled out the questionnaire 
probably misinterpreted this question as the committee is 
sure the above percentage is entirely too high). 

III. CONCLUSIONS 

1. The public school districts of Texas, both urban and 
rural, show few teachers properly prepared to teach phys- 
ical education. Only six cities report teachers holding cer- 
tificates in physical education, while there are no teachers 
certificated in physical education in rural districts. 

2. The vast majority of the cities and practically all 
the rural districts of Texas provide no directed physical 
training except for candidates for athletic teams. 

3. Only a beginning of physical examination and medical 
inspection of elementary and high-school pupils is found in 
the cities of Texas, while the only physical examination 
found in the rural districts is that given by the Red Cross 
Nurse. 

4. There is some positive instruction in health, hygiene 
and sanitation in the public schools of Texas, but just how 
much is being done in developing health-habits, attitudes, 
and standards it is impossible to say. However, a beginning 
has been made and a better interest is being manifested on 
the part of public school authorities. 

5. The extent to which physical education is found in a 
school system does not depend upon the size of the city, but 
seemingly upon a superintendent with a realization of the 
need of this type of work and with the financial support to 
provide it. 

6. Apparently, there is a great deal of supervision of 
the play of public school children, but it is difficult to de- 
termine just how much of the supervision is merely "on- 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 71 

looking" on the part of the teacher, and how much is di- 
rected play designed to promote formation of character on 
the part of future citizens. 

IV. RECOMMENDATIONS 

The following recommendations are submitted : 

1. That physical education should be placed in the list 
of examination subjects for second class elementary and 
secondary certificates. 

2. That all students securing teachers' certificates from 
teacher training institutions should be required to have had 
at least one unit of work in the teaching of physical educa- 
tion. 

3. That teacher training institutions be asked to study 
the problem of training teachers and directors of physical 
education, and provide a course of study in physical educa- 
tion which would enable a student to major therein. 

4. That a campaign be waged to impress upon the pub- 
lic, rural and urban, the need of physical education in the 
public schools and that the following organizations be re- 
quested to study this problem and give it a prominent place 
on their programs : The Texas Congress of Mothers, 
Parent-Teacher Association, Texas Federation of Women's 
Clubs, Texas State Teachers' Association, Rotary Clubs, 
Lion Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, and other civic organizations. 

5. That City Superintendents, County Superintendents, 
school officials, and civic organizations render every assis- 
tance possible in maintaining County Red Cross Nurses 
now in service and in providing such nurses in counties 
where they have not as yet been employed. 

6. That some means be found whereby the schools may 
be provided with funds for maintaining and expanding the 
work now being done by County Red Cross Nurses. 

V. THE IDEAL 

1. A director certificated in physical education in each 
county and city school system in the state. 



72 University of Texas Bulletin 

2. A division of physical education in the State Depart- 
ment of Education in charge of an expert in this field. 

3. Public school teachers with sufficient training in 
physical education to enable them to co-operate with the 
county or city director. 

4. Every child to have a physical examination at least 
twice a year and to have remedial defects removed. This 
work should be in charge of an adequate staff of physicians 
and school nurses. There should be one school nurse for 
every 2,500 school children. 

5. A place in the daily program for corrective exercises 
to be given by the teacher under the supervision of the direc- 
tor of physical education. 

6. Adequate provision for supervised play — every child 
playing. 

7. An athletic badge test similar to that given in New 
York and Virginia, and recommended by the National Play 
Ground Association. 

8. A development in every child of play interests which 
will carry over into adult life. 



TEACHER-TRAINING AT THE UNIVERSITY, THE 

AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE, 

AND THE COLLEGE OF INDUSTRIAL ARTS 

B. F. PlTTENGER 

Associate Professor of Educational Administration, 
University of Texas 

Doubtless all three of the institutions included in this 
report had accomplished considerable work in the incidental 
training of teachers from the time of their foundation ; but 
courses especially designed for professional teacher-train- 
ing began to be introduced at the University of Texas in 
1893, at the College of Industrial Arts in 1908-09, and at 
the Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1917. x Dif- 
ferent causes contributed to the introduction of these courses 
in each case. 

At the University, professional courses for teachers came 
in response to a demand for trained teachers for high 
schools, and for trained officers of administration and su- 
pervision. In 1888, the State Superintendent of Public In- 
struction urged that a chair of pedagogy be established at 
the University "to prepare high-school teachers and scholar- 
ly county superintendents and city superintendents." 2 In 
the fifteen years from 1875 to 1890, the number of approved 
high schools in the state multiplied from 1 to about 30. 
The growth since its establishment of the department of 
education at the University has roughly followed the growth 
in numbers of approved high schools. 3 

Since its inception the University department of educa- 
tion has pursued persistently the objectives for which it was 
created. In doing so it has followed the example of other 
such departments elsewhere. A study made in 1915 showed 
that all of the departments of education in 40 state univer- 



1 Davis, J. T., Rural Teacher Training in Texas; passim. 
-Biennial Report, 1888. 
3 Davis, J. T., Op. Cit., p. 29. 



74 University of Texas Bulletin 

sities and colleges were devoting their energies primarily 
to training high-school teachers and principals and superin- 
tendents. 4 To these original objectives, however, have been 
added at the University of Texas (a) the preparation of 
teachers for normal schools and colleges, and (b) the scien- 
tific study, and the training of scientific students, of edu- 
cational problems of every sort. In the field of educational 
research the University makes no effort to narrow its in- 
terests or endeavors. 

The aims of the teacher-training department at the Col- 
lege of Industrial Arts may be inferred from the following 
quotations : 

The College of Industrial Arts was opened in 1903. The 
purpose and scope of the foundation of the college is set 
forth in the preliminary announcement. "Purpose and 
scope : A first class industrial institute and college for the 
education of white girls in this state in the arts and 
sciences, in which such girls may acquire a literary educa- 
tion, together with a knowledge of kindergarten instruc- 
tion..." It continues further, "Teachers who desire to 
prepare for teaching in the public schools will be provided 
with special courses in the theory and practice of such 
work." 5 

Teachers who desire to prepare for teaching manual 
training, including sewing and cooking, in the public schools, 
will be welcome to the institution and will be provided with 
courses in theory and practice work, suitable for primary, 
grammar, and high schools. 6 

The Department of Philosophy and Education has a two- 
fold purpose in offering courses in the various groups of 
work in education. Fundamentally, the work is designed to 
give special training to those who expect to make teaching 
a profession . . . Many of the courses are highly desirable 
for those who are to follow other lines of activity . . . The 
course in Child Study, as well as other related courses of- 
fered in the Department, is designed primarily for training 
in home environment. 7 



4 Alexander, Carter; School Review Monographs; VI, p. 3. 
■"Rutledge; quoting from Preliminary Announcement Bulletin, Feb- 
ruary 20, 1903; p. 3. 

Catalogue, College of Industrial Arts; 1910-11, p. 69; 1913-14. 
•Ibid., 1920, p. 117. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 75 

From these statements it appears that the purpose of the 
College of Industrial Arts, in the teacher-training field, are 
to train kindergarten teachers, and teachers of "manual 
training, including cooking and sewing," in both elementary 
and high schools. In addition, the general cultural values, 
and particularly the domestic values, of courses in Education 
are duly recognized. 

Teacher-training courses at the Agricultural and Mechan- 
ical College have come in response to the provisions of the 
Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. "The State Board of Education 
in Texas has designated the Agricultural and Mechanical 
College as an agency for the training of teachers of agri- 
culture and industrial subjects under the terms of this act. 
Immediately after the passage of the Smith-Hughes law in 
1917, a department of education was established at the 
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas for the pur- 
pose of training high school teachers of agriculture and in- 
dustrial education." 8 The college also recognizes the need 
for training supervisors and administrators of such work. 

The foregoing statements review the avowed purposes of 
these three institutions, so far as teacher-training goes, as 
set forth in their literature. A survey of the courses offered 
by each institution shows that in general they conform 
rather closely to the objectives set forth above. At the Uni- 
versity the great majority of distinctly professional courses 
are directed toward the training of high school teachers and 
supervisory and administrative officers. At the College of 
Industrial Arts the schedule of courses seems to have been 
formulated with the objectives already set forth clearly in 
mind. The same is true of the offering at the Agricultural 
and Mechanical College. In all three institutions there are 
properly provided certain general basic courses in Educa- 
tional Psychology and Sociology, History of Education, and 
Educational Philosophy. 

Very slight indication is gained from inspection of the 
lists of courses offered in the education departments of 



v Davis, J. T., Op. Cit., p. 48. 



76 University of Texas Bulletin 

these institutions, of a departure from these avowed aims. 
An example at the University is found in the Freshman 
course in Education. The presence of this course is ex- 
plained by the requirements of the existing certification law. 

Outside the education department, there are also organ- 
ized at the University courses for the preparation of domes- 
tic science teachers under the Smith-Hughes act. The Col- 
lege of Industrial Arts lists among its professional courses 
"special methods" courses in English, History, Physical and 
Biological Sciences, and Reading. The bearing of these 
courses upon the aims set forth in the announcements is not 
entirely clear. The course in School Administration at the 
Agricultural and Mechanical College also suggests a ques- 
tion. But with these exceptions, which are almost negligible 
in proportion to the total offering of each institution, the 
schedules of courses bear out the explicit statements of aim 
in each case. 

During the period from September 1, 1920, to August 
31, 1921, a total of 286 teachers applied for certificates upon 
the basis of work done at the University. Teachers' di- 
plomas, based upon the completion of requirements for the 
B.A. degree and including requirements in Education, were 
awarded to 30 students. Ten students completed the work 
for graduate degrees with their major or one minor in Ed- 
ucation. During the period from February 1, 1920, to Jan- 
uary 31, 1921, the Teachers' Appointment Bureau at the 
University placed 208 teachers in high-school positions, 35 
in elementary school positions, and 57 in positions as prin- 
cipals or superintendents. In 1920-21, the Agricultural and 
Mechanical College placed 33 teachers of agriculture in high 
schools and 21 principals and administrators. 9 

In connection with these facts of placement it is interest- 
ing to note that 465 new teachers, without high-school ex- 
perience of any sort, were absorbed by the high schools of 
Texas in the fall of 1921. 10 



°Similar data requested from the College of Industrial Arts were 
rot received in time to incorporate them in this report. 

10 See "The Status of Texas High-School Teachers," elsewhere in 
this bulletin. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 77 

The writer of this paper believes that these institutions 
should continue to develop their work for the training of 
teachers along the lines that have been indicated as their ac- 
cepted objectives. For the present, he believes that the 
emphasis at the University should upon the training of 
high-school teachers and supervisory and administrative 
officers, at the Agricultural and Mechanical College upon the 
training of teachers of agriculture and industrial subjects, 
and at the College of Iudustrial Arts upon the training of 
teachers of domestic science and related subjects. But he 
would not mercilessly restrict any of these institutions to 
the fields herein indicated; neither would he shut out from 
these fields other competent institutions. It will probably 
be agreed that no teacher-training agency will wisely em- 
bark upon a line of service in which it cannot hope to do 
creditable and efficient work. But the important question 
before all of these institutions in Texas today is not the 
apportionment of the field among them according to the 
types of teachers to be trained, and the erection of a "ver- 
boten" sign upon each one's reservation. The important 
problems before these agencies at present are (1) to stim- 
ulate attendance upon these institutions and certification 
through them, (2) to make as efficient as possible the work 
that each one attempts to do, (3) to see to it that the needs 
of all teachers of all classes are provided for, and (4) to 
make financially possible the maintenance of a complete 
corps of adequately trained teachers by the state. As an 
immediate step in this direction, would it not be wise for all 
these institutions to allay their differences, if such exist, ana 
co-operate to devise a plan for the furthering of these four 
objects, and continue to co-operate until they are accom- 
plished? 

Every teacher-training institution will find guidance in 
the search for its proper field of service by taking note of 
the demands coming from its own student-body and from 
the schools which draw upon it for teachers. In any institu- 
tion of college rank when sufficient bona fide demand for 
any particular sort of training exists, Texas is justified in 
making liberal appropriation for its satisfaction. This 



78 University of Texas Bulletin 

policy may result in a certain amount of apparent duplica- 
tion ; but the writer believes that such duplication is not only 
harmless but essential. With respect to the nature of the 
demands made upon it and of its ability to meet them, each 
institution should be its own best judge. If each one will 
conscientiously apply itself to discovering and satisfying 
the demands which are actually being made upon it, none 
need fear the encroachments of others upon its peculiar field. 
Also all will find sufficient work to do. 

The writer is not informed as to the demands for teachers 
and types of training actually confronting the Agricultural 
and Mechanical College and the College of Industrial Arts. 
It seems fair to assume that they correspond to the objec- 
tives which these schools have accepted and to the courses 
which they have adopted. But the writer is in a better 
position to judge of the demands confronting the University. 

To meet the actual requirements of its students and of the 
schools which it supplies, the University should eventually 
be equipped to cover the whole gamut of teacher-training. 
It should be able to direct each of its students into that field 
of work for which he is best suited by preference and ability. 
It should have available, for the training of effective super- 
visors, laboratories illustrative of the various fields of teach- 
ing. These diversified laboratories are also essential for the 
use of research students, and of students preparing to teach 
professional subjects in other institutions. A frequent ex- 
perience of an instructor at the University of Texas today is 
that of being forced to divert an earnest student from his 
chosen field of practice or investigation because facilities 
are lacking for carrying the work forward. In a university 
of the first class such experiences should be uncommon. In 
order that it may guide its students properly into appro- 
priate fields, and in order that it may effectively serve pro- 
spective administrators and supervisors and mature re- 
search students, the writer urges the necessity of freedom 
for the university to work out its own lines of service in 
teacher-training as it perceives the need; but fairness and 
efficiency both require that there be granted to all its sister 
institutions the same large liberty. 



THE FUNCTIONS OF THE NORMAL COLLEGES IN 
THE SOLUTION OF THE TEACHER-PROBLEM 

Robert L. Marquis 
President of Sul Ross Normal College 

There are six normal colleges now in operation, one 
scheduled to open in 1923, and another which will probably 
be provided for in 1925. In order of their establishment, 
they are: 

The Sam Houston Normal Institute, Huntsville, opened 
1879. 

The North Texas State Normal College, Denton, opened 
1901. 

The Southwest Texas State Normal College, San Marcos, 
opened 1903. 

The West Texas State Normal College, Canyon, Texas, 
opened 1910. 

The Sul Ross State Normal College, Alpine, Texas, opened 
1920. 

The Stephen F. Austin State Normal College, Nac- 
ogdoches, scheduled to open 1923. 

The legislature has provided for a state normal college 
for South Texas. This school has been located at Kings- 
ville by the Board of Regents, and will probably open in 
1925. 

CONTROL 

For thirty-two years, from 1879 to 1911, these schools 
were governed by the State Board of Education. The State 
Board of Education is an ex-officio board and consists of 
the governor, comptroller, and the secretary of State. In 
1911 the legislature created "The State Board of Regents 
for the Normal Colleges," and gave this board control of 
the schools. 



80 University of Texas Bulletin 

EVOLUTION OF THE CURRICULUM 

From the beginning courses of study, admission require- 
ments and graduation conditions have been fairly uniform. 
Until 1913 the course of study extended over three years ; 
no positive admission requirements were imposed on appli- 
cants who requested permission to do the work of the first 
year. High-school graduates were admitted to the senior 
year. The subject matter offered was largely determined 
by the certificate law in force. Students in the first year 
studied and reviewed all of the subjects required for a sec- 
ond grade certificate; in the second year, the subjects re- 
quired for a first grade certificate ; and in the third, or 
senior year, subjects required for a permanent certificate. 
Graduates were admitted to the freshman class of the Uni- 
versity with credit for one unspecified course. 

In 1903 the Board of Regents authorized the four schools 
then in operation to make several far-reaching changes in 
their organization. First; they should offer two years of 
sub-college work and two years of college work. Second ; 
admission requirements were raised. Third; Training 
schools were organized and all graduates were required to do 
actual teaching before they could be graduated. Another 
step forward was taken in 1917, when the college added two 
more years to the curriculum and offered the bachelor's de- 
gree. 

The Sul Ross State Normal College offers only two years 
of college work. 

PRESENT ORGANIZATION 

At present the State Normal Colleges require fifteen units 
for admission and offer four years of college work leading 
to a bachelor's degree. Diplomas in Elementary Education 
are awarded for the completion of two years of college work. 
Two years of sub-college work, called normal school work, 
are given, and, restricted, short-lived certificates are issued 
on them. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 81 

Training Schools are maintained, and are made up of a 
kindergarten and nine grades. There is an unbroken unit, 
as follows : 

1. College, four years. 

2. Normal School, two years. 

3. Training School, nine years. 

4. Kindergarten, one year. 

Courses of study are offered, covering every subject 
taught in the state public schools; and every student may 
teach his major subject under supervision in the training 
school. 

The following curricula are offered: 

1. Kindergarten. 

2. Primary and Elementary. 

3. Intermediate. 

4. High School. 

5. Special Subjects. 

STATUS INTERPRETED 

When the eight State Normal Colleges now provided for 
are in operation each section of the state will have a teacher- 
training institution near at hand. This policy is in line 
with that practiced in the other states. The schools must 
be brought to the homes of the people rather than bring the 
people away from their homes to the schools. 

The ex-officio board which controlled normal schools was 
objectionable from two standpoints. First, it was ex-officio, 
and not a school board. Second, it was a one man board ; 
the governor appoints the secretary of state. We shall 
make the plain admission that during the years this ex- 
officio board administered the normals, these schools made 
no progress. Normal school history under the Board of 
Regents is another story. From the beginning the per- 
sonnel of the Board has been citizens of the first class, and, 
there have been many reappointments, and as a result con- 
siderable stability of policy. Very soon after the Board 
was organized it evolved a program for developing the nor- 



82 Unive?'sity of Texas Bulletin 

mals into teacher training institutions. Members of the 
Board visit the schools often, keeping in close touch with the 
schools and their needs. 

Until 1913 no attempt was made to train high-school 
teachers. Notwithstanding this fact, many graduates were 
used in our best high schools over the state, and some of 
them have become successful principals and superintendents. 
As high-school standards were constantly raised, however, 
students began to ask for higher preparation to meet them. 
In response to their request the Normal Colleges determined 
to move forward with the procession. 

The present organization, noted above, lays a foundation 
for training men and women for teaching in every part of 
our public school system. To have maintained two-year 
colleges would have made female colleges of our normal 
schools, since elementary education is in the hands of 
women, and the state teacher training schools would have 
only partially undertaken the task for which they were 
created. No apology is offered for undertaking their whole 
duty. No other work has been undertaken and no strange 
gods are being served. The Texas Normal Colleges have 
stayed in their allotted field, and their aim is to occupy it 
fully. 

A REASONABLY IDEAL STATUS 

There should be : 

a. A teacher-training institution in every section of the 
state. 

b. Teacher-training schools, being technical schools, 
should have a separate board of control. 

c. These schools should train teachers for every grade 
and every subject taught in the state's public school system. 

d. The training school, or laboratory, should offer a 
practical field for every subject taught in our public school 
system. 

e. Research work should be carried on in Education. 
This is the field for research work in our Normal Colleges. 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 83 

f. Some extension work in Education should be provided 
for. 

WHAT TEXAS SHOULD DO TO REALIZE THIS STATUS 

First of all place the state teacher training colleges on 
a par in every way with those devoted to the preparation of 
lawyers, doctors, farmers, home-makers, and engineers. 
Provide buildings, libraries, and laboratories for the train- 
ing of men and women for teaching, which is a civil service, 
equivalent to those provided for the professions mentioned 
above, which are, more or less personal in their blessings 
and benefits. Raise the standards of certification high. 
Make the cost of preparation equal to that in the other pro- 
fessions, and pay salaries which will enable men and women 
to enjoy standards of living commensurate with their sta- 
tions. Finally, let it be said that the State Normal Colleges 
are committed to a program for teacher training that is 
open at the top, devoted to the welfare of the children to be 
taught and to the making of the business of teaching a pro- 
fession, and second to none. 



TEACHER TRAINING IN JUNIOR COLLEGES 
IN TEXAS 

J. O. Leath, Dean of Kidd-Key College 

Bulletin 132, July 30, 1921, published by the State De- 
partment of Education, Texas, lists the following institu- 
tions in Texas as independent junior colleges of the first 
class: Alexander College, Jacksonville; Burleson College, 
Greenville; Carr-Burdette College, Sherman; College of 
Marshall, Marshall ; Clarendon College, Clarendon ; Decatur 
Baptist Junior College, Decatur ; Kidd-Key College and Con- 
servatory, Sherman; Meridian Junior College, Meridian; 
Midland College, Midland ; Rusk Junior College, Rusk ; Texas 
Military College, Terrell; Thorp Spring Christian College, 
Thorp Spring ; Wayland Baptist College, Plainview ; Wesley 
College Greenville ; Westminster College, Tehuacana ; West- 
moorland College, San Antonio. The same bulletin cites 
the College of the City of El Paso as a municipal junior col- 
lege of the first class. In addition to these there are the 
John Tarleton Agricultural College, Stephenville, and 
Grubbs Vocational College, Arlington, which are state 
junior colleges and branches of the Agricultural and Me- 
chanical College of Texas. Each of the above mentioned 
institutions has the privilege under the laws of Texas to 
conduct teacher training classes for the elementary and the 
high schools of Texas. 

For the preparation of this article, the writer sought 
first-hand information from each of the above mentioned 
institutions and replies were received from the three public 
and 13 out of 16 independent junior colleges. All of these 
institutions except one report teacher training as a major 
feature of the program. In answer to the question, how 
many students of college grade are enrolled in education 
classes, 11 of the 16 independent junior colleges report a 
total of 702 for 1921-'22 and 661 for 1920-'21. Eight of the 
same 11 report 329 for 1919-'20. Five of the 8 report 317 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 85 

for 1918-'19 and 283 for 1917-'18, the year the junior col- 
lege law went into effect. The College of the City of El 
Paso has had only two years of history. The first year it 
enrolled 7 students in education classes ; the present session 
43. The past five years the two State junior colleges en- 
rolled for each year respectively the following numbers in 
education classes, beginning with 1917-'18: 47, 79, 81, 
101, 162. 

In answer to the question, what proportion for each of the 
five years were the students in education of the total num- 
ber of college students, 12 independent junior colleges gave 
the average of 64 per cent, for 1921-'22 and 57 per cent, for 
1920-'21. Ten of the same 12 report an average of 54 for 
1919-'20. Eight of the same 10 report an average of 49 
per cent, for 1918-'19, and 50 per cent, for 1917- , 18. The 
College of the City of El Paso reports 41 per cent, for 
1920-'21 and 42 per cent, for 1921-'22. The two states 
junior colleges report averages as follows: 1917-'18, 29 
per cent.; 1918-'19, 39 per cent.; 1919-'20, 38 per cent.; 
1920-'21 45 per cent. ; 1921-'22, 35 per cent. For the five 
years for the independent junior colleges reporting, the 
average per cent, of students in education of the total num- 
ber of college students is 55; for the two state junior col- 
leges, 37; and for the one municipal junior college for the 
two years, 411/2- 

These statistics are sufficiently accurate to demonstrate 
that junior colleges in Texas are giving much attention to 
teacher training and that this degree of attention is unmis- 
takably on the increase. Furthermore, more attention is 
being given thereto by the independent than by the public 
junior colleges. It is safe to say that the independent junior 
colleges find as one of the principal reasons for existence the 
opportunity to do teacher training for the public schools 
of Texas. The public junior colleges are equipped to 
specialize along other vocational lines than teacher train- 
ing ; hence a smaller per cent, of their students take teacher 
training courses. The vocational opportunities in inde- 
pendent junior colleges are more limited to education, music 



86 University of Texas Bulletin 

and the fine arts, and home economics. The report from 
the nation as a whole indicates that only 9 per cent, of the 
subjects offered in private are vocational as against 53 per 
cent, in public junior colleges. 

The above conclusions are in keeping with a study of the 
junior college in the United States made by F. M. McDowell 
and published by the Bureau of Education, Washington, as 
Bulletin for 1919, No. 35. In this report, the author says: 
"In some sections of the country, the private junior colleges 
have been encouraged as a means of providing for additional 
opportunities for teacher training. This is especially true 
of Texas. . . A large number of junior colleges have been 
established under the junior college law, evidently expect- 
ing to make teacher training a prominent feature." The 
same authority reports that 34 per cent, of the private 
junior colleges in America responding to his questionnaire 
state the desire to provide for additional opportunities for 
teacher training as one of the reasons for their organiza- 
tion. On the other hand, only 91/? per cent of the public 
junior colleges responding mentioned teacher training as 
one of the principal reasons for their organization. In this 
connection, it may be well to say that this report, 1919, in- 
dicates 93 private junior colleges and 39 public junior col- 
leges in America; Texas and Missouri leading In the former 
with 16 and 14 respectively, and California leading in the 
latter with 21. While this report indicates that teacher 
training in public junior colleges is not being magnified, yet 
a majority of the public junior colleges are in California, 
where teacher training is otherwise well provided for. 
"On the other hand," he says, "a number of the private col- 
leges are in Texas, in which state they are established 
especially for the purpose of providing better opportunities 
for the training of teachers." 

So we are not surprised to find that the junior colleges in 
Texas, both private and public, are magnifying the oppor- 
tunity to do teacher training to a greater extent than in the 
nation as a whole. It is safe to say that, had Texas more 

first-class junior colleges, public as well as private, the cry- 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 37 

ing need for more and better trained public school teachers 
would in itself be almost a sufficient reason for the existence 
of those institutions. In thinking of the above statements, 
consider the situation in Texas to-day with reference to 
trained teachers. I quote from Bulletin 133, August,1921, 
published by the Department of Education, Texas : Fifty per 
cent, of the teachers in the common schools have certificates 
below the first grade; 19 per cent, in the independent dis- 
tricts have certificates below the first grade; 48 per cent, 
of the teachers in the common school districts are graduates 
of no schools; 79 per cent, of them lack college training; 
45 per cent, of the teachers in independent districts lack 
college training, and only 30 per cent, of them are graduates 
of normal schools. In 1920 only 33 per cent, of the teachers 
of the state were graduates of high schools ; 21 per cent, of 
normal schools ; 13 per cent, of colleges or universities ; and 
33 per cent, were not graduates of any school. In 1920, 
when 11,232 teachers in Texas, 37 per cent, of the total, 
had certificates below the first grade; and when 12,656, 
79 per cent, of the total number in common school districts, 
had no college training whatever ; that same year there were 
in junior colleges in Texas only 661 students taking courses 
in teacher training. And that same year only about 1,500 
people received certificates through all the colleges and 
universities in Texas. 

The question may be raised as to whether those who are 
pursuing teacher training courses in junior colleges are 
actually entering the teaching profession. Reports from 
ten out of sixteen independent junior colleges in Texas in- 
dicate that during the past four years on the average about 
38 per cent, of those who took courses in education actually 
received certificates and taught. This 38 per cent, is also 
about 21 per cent, of the total number of college students 
during the time. From the two state junior colleges, the 
report comes that for the four years an average of 60 per 
cent, who took courses in education received certificates and 
began teaching. This 60 per cent, represents about 22 per 
cent, of the total number of college students during the time. 



88 University of Texas Bulletin 

None of the seven who took work in education at the College 
of the City of El Paso has begun teaching except those who 
were at the time engaged in teaching in the public schools 
of the city. 

So the statistics indicate that in the private junior col- 
leges a larger percentage of students pursue courses in edu- 
cation ; that in public junior colleges a larger percentage of 
those who take work in education actually enter the pro- 
fession of teaching ; and finally that approximately the same 
proportion of college students at the two classes of institu- 
tions, private and public, actually immediately find their 
way into the work of teaching. As we have noticed, the 
first fact is to be explained by reason of the fact that the 
private junior college is more limited to teacher training 
as a vocational interest than is the public institution. The 
second fact is probably due to the greater emphasis in the 
private school on continuing studies at a university. Our 
two state junior colleges emphasize vocational activities, 
especially along agricultural lines. However, the report 
from the nation as a whole, to which reference has already 
been made, shows that 73 per cent, of the graduates of pub- 
lic junior colleges continue their work in higher institutions, 
whereas only 41 per cent, of the graduates of private junior 
colleges continue their studies. We should remember, how- 
ever, that most of the public junior colleges, from which 
that report was made, were not state agricultural colleges, 
such as ours, but municipal junior colleges, a majority of 
which are in California, where higher education is strongly 
emphasized. Then, it seems, we may normally expect only 
about 20 per cent, of the total enrollment of college students 
at the junior colleges of Texas to enter on leaving those in- 
stitutions the work of teaching. So taking the total enroll- 
ment of the nineteen junior colleges for the session 1921-'22 
we may expect not more than about 300 available teachers 
for next year. 

On investigation I find that seven out of the fourteen of 
the junior colleges reporting are giving courses in rural 
education, and six of the fourteen report that their chief 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 89 

concern as regards teacher training is to qualify teachers 
for rural schools. Twelve out of fourteen are giving courses 
especially adapted to elementary teaching, and seven of the 
twelve state that their chief concern is to prepare for ele- 
mentary teaching, without specifying whether rural or city. 
The remaining two are giving only general courses in edu- 
cation. Ten are giving special courses in high-school teach- 
ing, and only four are giving first consideration to the prep- 
aration of high-school teachers or even placing preparation 
for high-school teaching on a parity with preparation for 
elementary or rural teaching. High-school teaching is gen- 
erally referred to with the explanation that their students 
teach in small towns. One school reports a course in special 
methods of teaching the manual arts and a course in school 
administration. 

From the above statement it is evident that the junior 
colleges in Texas are placing emphasis first of all on the 
preparation of teachers for the elementary grades and with 
almost equal emphasis for the rural schools. In other 
words, they are contributing their efforts to the ameliora- 
tion of the weakest spot in our entire public school system. 
In answer to the inquiry as to the number of teachers trained 
during the session 1920-'21 and placed in the various types 
or levels of the public school system, 12 of the 19 junior 
colleges gave answers which total as follows: Rural or 
village common schools, 116; elementary schools, 63; city 
or independent schools, 59 ; high schools, 26 ; principals or 
superintendents, 13 ; kindergartens, 4 ; agricultural teaching, 
2 ; manual training teaching, 2 ; science teaching, 1. Almost 
universal failure to respond to the inquiry as to what agen- 
cies and activities are made use of in placing teachers would 
lead me to conclude that the junior colleges have very little 
organized system in that matter, but depend for the most 
part on the individual initiative of the prospective teacher, 
backed up by personal recommendations from the institu- 
tions concerned. Perhaps this is due to the fact that junior 
colleges have been functioning as teacher training centers 
only during the past four years besides the present session, 



90 University of Texas Bulletin 

during which time the scarcity of teachers rendered the se- 
curing of positions by trained teachers relatively easy. 

Reports from 13 of the junior colleges for the session 
1920-'21 would indicate a decided preference for the old 
certificate law, that is, 214 were given the two years first 
grade certificate under the old law as opposed to 95 who 
received certificates under the new law. Of the 95, 18 re- 
ceived the four years elementary; 16 the six years elemen- 
tary ; 49 the two years high school ; 12 the four years high- 
school certificate. The universality of the old law seeming- 
ly made its appeal, despite the fact that very few on leaving 
junior college become teachers in first class high schools. 
Furthermore, of the 95 who chose the new law, 49 took the 
two years high-school rather than the four years elementary 
certificate, and only 18 chose the four years elementary 
certificate. This probably indicates a desire to teach in 
small towns, where there are third class or unclassified 
high schools. More experience with the new law may make 
it more attractive. 

Having taken a general view of the actual status of 
teacher training and placement in Texas as related to the 
junior colleges, let us now with more brevity point out a 
reasonably ideal situation. In the first place I will say 
that I believe that Texas needs her present junior colleges, 
independent and public, to assist in the work of teacher 
training. In the light of the facts already presented, we 
shall all agree that Texas needs a more adequate supply of 
properly trained teachers. The question remains, Should 
Texas attempt to do this work without the aid of the junior 
colleges? It is economical to the state to rely on the 16 inde- 
pendent junior colleges for a supply of properly trained 
teachers. Unless, under proper state supervision, they 
should be permitted to continue their work or teacher train- 
ing. 

But a reasonably ideal situation demands that these in- 
stitutions be strengthened. Many of them are in need of 
better buildings and equipment and stronger and more 
jjermanent faculties. Practically all of them need a perma- 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 91 

nent endowment fund and an opportunity for practice teach- 
ing under supervision. One president of a junior college 
thinks that his denomination should establish one more such 
institution in another section of the state ; but replies from 
13 others are to the effect that their denominations should 
establish no more but rather strengthen those junior collges 
now in existence. Personally I believe that that opinion 
predominates throughout the various denominations of 
Texas. In reply to the question as to what the junior col- 
leges need to enable them to function better as teacher train- 
ing centers, 8 say more and better buildings and equipment, 
more experienced teachers — in other words, more financial 
support. Two insist that there is need of more encourage- 
ment and co-operation from the state, not specifying just 
what is meant. Personally I think the state is giving the 
independent junior colleges a proper chance, and let us hope 
that they may be able to endure the strenuous financial de- 
pression till the various denominational educational move- 
ments can result in strengthening them as desired and 
needed. 

I believe that in various sections of the state, removed 
from the cities and other state colleges and universities and 
in close touch with agricultural interests, the state should 
establish other agricultural junior colleges similar to the 
two it now has and should see that they contain strong de- 
partments of teacher training for the rural schools. Most 
of their patronage will necessarily come from the farms, 
and they will be in splendid position to train not only 
farmers but also teachers for farmers' children. I find 
this idea voluntarily supported by the report from one of 
our state junior colleges. 

In answer to the question — Do you think the leading cities 
of Texas, about two dozen of them, in the interest of teacher 
training, should be encouraged to establish municipal junior 
colleges — ten of the reports answer yes and five no ; the five 
noes being from independent institutions. Personally I be- 
lieve that, in the interest of teacher training and of general 
educational economy, that would be a splendid policy. 



92 University of Texas Bulletin 

President Roberts, of the Junior College of the City of El 
Paso, reports: "During the first year (1920-'21) the en- 
rollment numbered 17 students, 7 of whom followed courses 
in education. This year we have 101 students, 43 of whom 
are taking courses in education. . . A number of grade 
teachers in El Paso are doing work with the junior col- 
lege . . . There are many poor people who make excellent 
teachers, yet are too poor to go away somewhere. I be- 
lieve the junior college will raise the standard of teachers 
in every local community where it exists." F. M. McDowell, 
in Bulletin for 1919, No. 35, Bureau of Education, Washing- 
ton, collates the following significant assigned reasons why 
public junior colleges were established: 1. The desire of 
parents to keep children at home. 2. To provide a com- 
pletion school for those who can not go further. 3. Desire 
of students to secure college work near home. 4. 4. To 
meet specific local needs. 5. Geographical remoteness from 
standard college or university. 6. To meet the entrance 
requirements (generally two years of college work) of pro- 
fessional schools. 7. To provide vocational training more 
advanced than high school work. 8. To provide additional 
opportunities for teacher training, etc. In addition, it may 
be said that it would be more economical for a city to estab- 
lish a junior college than to send away to college hundreds 
of Freshmen and Sophomores. Furthermore, as soon as the 
state, in the interest of teacher training, can give up the 
Freshman and Sophomore years at its university and its 
A. & M. College, it would be a sound economic and pedagog- 
ical policy to do so and use that money and power to help 
build state and municipal junior colleges. In 1919 the 
state of California was appropriating $15 per student to 
those enrolled in 21 municipal junior colleges. Further- 
more, there are social and moral reasons in favor of train- 
ing in a junior college as against a large university for the 
first two years of college work. It is generally recognized 
that those two years are secondary rather then higher edu- 
cation. Also there seems an unnecessarily large waste of 
human values among Freshmen at all large universities, 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 93 

something like 25 per cent, failing and dropping out of 
school. The break between the high school and the univer- 
sity, right in the midst of adolescence, is generally being 
recognized by students of education as too great. The 
junior college attempts to solve this difficulty just as the 
junior high school attempts to remedy the difficulty arising 
by reason of the break between the elementary and the high 
school. Theoretically, it seems that teachers trained in a 
junior college, being upperclassmen and therefore having 
splendid opportunity for developing personality and leader- 
ship, should be relatively well prepared for their work. 

I think that a reasonably ideal situation demands that in 
the near future no one be certificated to teach in the elemen- 
tary schools of Texas without at least two years of college 
or normal school work and teacher training beyond the 
high school ; that no one be certificated to teach in the first 
class high schools of Texas without at least a bachelor's de- 
gree and four years' teacher training in a first class college, 
university, or normal school ; and that no one be permitted 
to teach in a first class junior college without at least one 
year of graduate study beyond the bachelor's degree. An 
adequate system of teacher training would soon give us 
the supply of trained teachers as needed, provided we also 
create proper conditions under which teachers thus trained 
can afford to work. To that end, we must adopt the county 
unit under expert supervision ; consolidate the rural schools ; 
build rural high schools and take the children to those con- 
solidated schools; supply adequate buildings, grounds, and 
equipment, and a nine months' term for all the schools ; raise 
and strengthen the compulsory attendance law ; and pay at 
least the average salaries that prevail in the United States 
to the various grades of teachers. Should we do these 
things, then teaching in Texas would begin to be a profes- 
sion and our much vaunted democracy would cease to belie 
itself in denying equal educational opportunities to all the 
children of Texas. 

We can not reach the ideal situation all at once, but some 
things we need to do immediately. The friends of educa- 



94 University of Texas Bulletin 

tion in Texas should encourage and co-operate with the 
various denominations in properly strengthening the inde- 
pendent junior colleges now in existence and discourage 
for the present the estabishment of any more. As soon as 
the financial crisis has passed, we should appeal the 
legislature to establish a few more junior agricultural and 
mechanical colleges with strong departments of teacher 
training for the rural schools. Some of these may very 
appropriately be located in the western half of the state. 
We should encourage about two dozen of the leading cities of 
Texas to take immediate steps to build municipal junior col- 
leges with strong departments of teacher training and 
should assist those institutions to find their place as a part 
of our public school system. If the present constitutional 
local tax limitation is a hindrance to this effort, we should 
organize a movement to remove the limitation. Along the 
lines suggested above, we should ask for an amendment to 
the certificate laws to become effective within about five 
years from date. We should ask for constitutional amend- 
ments making provision for the maintenance of the higher 
institutions of Texas by a special tax rather than relying 
too much on special appropriations, and for raising the ad- 
valorem school tax from 35 cents to about 50 cents, a portion 
of this to inure to the special benefit of the rural schools. 
We should ask the next session of the legislature to increase 
the general appropriation for the publuic schools and the 
special appropriation for the rural schools. By propaganda 
and appeals for appropriate legislation, we should strive 
immediately for the county unit under expert supervision, 
the consolidation of rural schools and the building of rural 
high schools, the strengthening of the compulsory attendance 
law, and the appropriation of scholastic money on the basis 
of actual attendance rather than on that of scholastic pop- 
ulation. Probably we could best further the educational 
interests of Texas by using our influence for constiutional 
convention, where all of these matters could receive united 
consideration. The immediate task of the friends of edu- 
cation in Texas is to help all Texas to see that the wisest and 



Conference Upon The Teacher-Problem in Texas 95 

biggest and most economical thing to do is to make provision 
for adequate and equal educational opportunities for all the 
children of Texas. 



